The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin
by Pandie Katteken
Summary: Six youths destined to save the world. In their hands fate lies but will they triumph over war, love and themselves? Please read and review : Thanks: Big thanks to Tamashii for helping me with the new summary :
1. Black Catkin Part 1

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 1**

"Weeeeee!!! Do it again, Pandora?" squealed the dirty fair-headed little girl, her dark green eyes sparkling with delight.

"Yeah Pandie. Show us your jumping trick" smiled an older brown haired girl. The other girl, whose hair was dark blonde, smiled mischievously and began to change shape. Before long a dark blonde cat was sitting where she had been, licking its paws.

Suddenly it started to trot over to a nearby oak tree, climbed up it, until it reached the top most branch, climbed out onto the branch, lay down and started to mew. _Hey Casey! _shouted Pandie's mental voice at the brown haired girl, _You have to change too, ya know. You're part of this trick, as well_

"Oh, okay" sighed Casey, laughing slightly, and began to change shape. Like Pandie she changed into an animal, but instead of being a cat she was a brown cocker spaniel with a tan muzzle. Okay she said mentally to her two friends, Let the fun begin

Pandie looked around for the perfect target for their trick. Suddenly she spotted him. He had short golden hair, blue eyes, and a young mocking face. She looked down at her best friend who was sitting butt down, head up, ears pricked, with her tail wagging like it was on overdrive, on the sidewalk, just under the tree. Immediately Casey was up, scampering towards the boy, barking at him.

"Go away, ya dumb mutt" said the boy, trying to shove Casey away with his foot. Casey gave a low growl and grabbed the material of one of the trouser legs of the jeans he was wearing and began dragging him back towards the tree. "Hey get off, stop it. I paid good money for these jeans, stop ruining them with your teeth, spit and smelly dog breath" he was complaining as they reached the tree. Casey let go of the boy's trouser leg, barked and looked up at the tree where Pandie was. As soon as the boy looked as well, Pandie began mewing (this was her "kitty stuck up in a tree" act). The young boy looked up at the tree and then looked around and noticed the little girl. "Hey kid!" he said, pointing up to where Pandie was, "Is that your cat?"

_That!?! _thought Pandie,_ He's making me sound like some kind of object you chuck in your room and forget about!! _She looked down the tree, saw Casey sneeze (but she was really covering up a doggy laugh) and was also glad to notice her little sister was shaking her head.

The boy continued to ask the little girl more questions, like "Can't you get it down from there?" and "Can't you climb trees?"

_Good grief! _Pandie thought to herself, _What is this? Kiddies' Question Time?!_

Eventually when the little girl answered no to all his questions, the boy said "Well kid, it looks like your moggy will have to stay stuck up there, because I'm not ruining a perfectly good pair of jeans." Then, when he was about to leave, Casey growled and grouched over the boy's trainers. To anyone smart enough, this meant "Climb the tree and rescue the cat or I swear I'll pee on your shoes." And boy was this guy smart enough.

"Okay! Okay!" he said grumpily as he began to climb the tree, "I'll rescue the dumb mog! Just don't ruin my treads!"

Pandie looked down from the tree at her little sister and said mentally, smiling, _Now, watch closely Faline. This is the best bit. And when I say _"Follow me", _you follow. Okay?_

Faline stared hard up at the tree. Suddenly the boy slipped slightly, and still staring up at the tree, Faline smiled widely. This was her way of answering her older sister's question in her mind, without her answering out loud and giving the whole trick away. Muttering obscenities under his breath, the boy continued to climb, gradually getting closer and closer to where Pandie was sitting.

_That's it, don't be afraid thought _Pandie, _Come to kitty. I won't scratch you. Just totally humiliate you instead. Oh, and by the way, before I forget, do you realise your foot's getting very itchy?_

Then, without even realising what he was doing, the boy twisted his left leg around to an angle and began scratching away at his foot inside his trainer. And when that didn't seem to work, he pulled his trainer off to try and get at the source of the itch, better.

_Uurgh!! If I could hold my nose right now, I would. Do I really have to put that smelly trainer in my mouth?!_

Pandie laughed mentally at her best friend's comment. The boy's trainers didn't exactly smell of rose blossoms. And being half cat shape-shifter, she could smell how bad it was. It was definitely worse than the smell of rotten eggs.

_Yeah_ Pandie replied, or the trick won't work and the chance for revenge will never be taken. _Don't worry Case; I'll buy you an extra large strawberry sundae at Swirlz later to make up for it._

_You'd better _said Casey, laughing mentally. _Okay, I guess I'd better get on with this then_

Suddenly Casey began running around the tree and barking so loud that half the neighbourhood could hear her. Every five seconds, she put her front paws up against the trunk of the tree, bounced off and twirled round, wagging her tail furiously at the same time.

This, of course, was very annoying, especially for the boy, who by now had managed to climb all the way up to the top branch of the tree and was now scratching at his smelly foot even more. "Shut up, ya dumb mutt" he said crossly, throwing his trainer at Casey. But instead of it hitting her on the muzzle or bouncing off the top of her head, Casey leapt up, caught the trainer in mid air and ran over to the garden, all the way at the other side of the street.

"Hey that's mine," yelled the boy "bring it back here. No, don't chew on it, that's a genuine Nike Blizzard you're slobbering over!"

_Cheap copy_

"I paid over $300, for that shoe, alone."

_More like $15 dollars for both trainers, from a low price sale, at K-Mart._

Puzzled for a second, Pandie stared at her best friend. _Sapphie told me. _said Casey's voice, laughing in her head, _Now go quickly, before he realises what's going on_

Pandie didn't need to be told twice. Without stopping to reply to Casey, she leapt all the way out of the tree, landing gracefully on her two front paws, then her back paws, on the ground, and began running, mentally giving the instruction to follow to her little sister, not knowing whether or not she had heard her mentally. But, thankfully, halfway down the street, she turned her head round for a second and saw Faline right behind her, changing from a human child to a small dirty blond kitten, mid run.

As she ran, Pandie could still hear the boy yelling and complaining from the top of the tree and then yelling even louder when he realised that the cat he'd been forced into rescuing had disappeared from the tree. _Hah! That's for shoving me in the school swimming pool with my clothes on! _said Pandie mentally, but not so the boy could hear.

********

"This is soooo boring." complained the small girl, stirring her ice cream around with her spoon.

The boy on the other side of the table looked up at her and said "Are you going to turn that into complete mush?"

The girl realised what she was doing and put her spoon down. Looking straight at the boy, she said, "I'm being serious Hadrian. All we've be doing so far, is sitting around here eating ice cream, looking over boring stuff, which I'm getting fed up with reading, you know. It's just so booooring".

Hadrian sighed and shook his head, "Arizan, you where the one who pestered mum and dad for years if you could be a Circle Daybreak agent when you grew up. At the moment you're too young to do any proper work, but since you are over 14 years old Thierry said you can train as an agent until you're old enough to become one."

"I know" sighed Arizan, looking out the window, "But I thought we would be staking out Night World lairs or risking our lives saving our people from vampires who still think humans are just a source of food. Not visiting small towns out in the middle of nowhere, which hardly anyone visits."

"Hey! I resent that remark."

Arizan looked up to see a tall boy with ash blonde hair, whose eyes at that moment were dark brown, holding a tray with a ice cream sundae and a mug of cappuccino. "Sorry Ash" said Arizan, smiling at the boy as he sat in the seat next to Hadrian, "I forgot about your visit to Briar Creek that you told me all about. How is Mary-Lynette, by the way?"

"That's okay, Rizzo" said Ash, cracking a smile, "Mary-Lynette's doing great. She's just finished a course in astronomy (she passed with flying colours, by the way), and then after the summer holidays she's going to Kennedy Space Centre for two months to do work experience with all the top space scientists and astronomers there."

"Oh, that's great, Ash" Arizan said, smiling.

"Yeah" replied Ash, still smiling, "but I forgot to mention the best bit. Mary-Lynette's coming to visit us in Las Vegas for the summer vacation. I'm going to have a two whole months to spend with the girl I love."

"That's great, Ash" said Arizan, "I wish I could find my soulmate."

Suddenly two shadows loomed over the table. They all looked up to see a boy and a girl with black hair, holding an ice cream sundae and a chocolate milkshake. "If you don't mind Ash," said the boy, mischievously, "could you change the subject, please, before I dump this ice cream sundae on you and go ralph my guts out."

"Yeah Ash." said the girl, "You're beginning to get too mushy for us at the moment. The next thing, you'll be turning into a complete wimp and start reciting soppy love poems, all the time."

"Ha ha, you kill me guys" Ash said sarcastically, before stuffing a big spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

"So Rashel," said Arizan, "have you and Quinn found anything out? Do we have to spend another day sitting on our butts, bored out of our wits, or are we going to get to kick the bad guys butts, now?"

Rashel laughed and said "Well Riz, you'll be glad to know we won't be sitting around on our butts for much longer, but we won't be doing any butt kicking, just yet, though. By the way..." She looked at Arizan.

"What?" Arizan asked, puzzled.

"You need to fix your hair" replied Rashel, "before it all falls into your ice cream."

Arizan looked down and noticed a lock of silvery pale blue hair was half an inch from dunking itself in her ice cream. "Aaah!! Why does my hair always seem to have a mind of its own?" Arizan said annoyed, tucking the lock of hair, behind her ear, "It was almost looking like it was going to eat my ice cream, instead of me there. Or at least try to eat it." She stopped and looked at Rashel. "I'm babbling, aren't I?" she said, with a slightly guilty face.

Rashel laughed and said "Yes, you are, Riz. Now go fix your hair before all of it decides to (as you put it) eat your ice cream. Here, you can borrow a couple of my hair bunches." She reached into her pocket, pulled out a plain black bunch and a velvety black scrunchy, and handed them both to Arizan.

Arizan took the bunches and looked at Rashel. "So, I'm guessing black is your favourite colour, Shel?" she said, grinning cheekily, twirling the scrunchy in her hand.

"Ah! Go and fix your hair" said Rashel, pushing Arizan towards the Ladies rest room.

********

"Where did you drop it, Fally?"

"I don't know," said Faline, twiddling her hair and swinging her legs while she sat on the sink unit in the rest room, "I left it near the sink, but I dropped it by accident."

"Really Faline," said Pandie, continuing to search under the toilet compartments, "you know you can't lose that ring. Why couldn't you have given it to Mrs Garner to look after?" I feel so ridiculous looking under here Pandie, thought to herself, and then out loud, "Y'know, someone's going to walk in here and wander why I'm crawling under the toilet cubicles."

Suddenly Pandie could hear the door open and the sound of someone's footsteps entering the room. "I spoke too soon" said Pandie, muttering under her breath. Maybe they won't notice me, if I pretend they're not there, she thought to herself, continuing to search for the ring.

"Um, excuse me, are you okay?"

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!!"

Pandie quickly pulled herself together and turned around to look at who was talking to her. "I'm sorry," said the girl, smiling apologetically, "I didn't mean to scare you. My name's Arizan, but you can call me Rizzo, if you like."

Looking at the girl, Pandie noticed how strange, yet so stunning the girl was. Her hair was very long, slightly wavy at the ends, and mostly a pale silvery colour. The hair at the front of her head was a dark royal blue, while the hair framing her face was a pale silvery blue. The strange thing though was her eyes. The right eye was dark brown, but the left eye had all the colours of the rainbow flecked around the pupil.

"Hi, I'm Pandora," said Pandie, smiling at the girl, "but I prefer to be called Pandie. Sorry if I sound rude, but why's your eye like that?"

Arizan pulled out a pocket mirror, from the small knapsack she was holding, flipped it open and stared into it. "Great" she said, "I forgot to put my other contact in." Quickly, she reached into her bag and took out a small plastic container. She opened the container, emptied a small contact lens into her hand and proceeded to carefully put the lens in her eye. Now both her eyes were dark brown. "So," she said, putting the container back in her bag, "have you lost something? When I came in here, you seemed to be crawling under the toilet cubicles looking for something."

"Oh, my little sister Faline dropped her ring," said Pandie, slightly flustered, "It's one that our late father gave to her before he died. It's very important that it's not lost, because it's one of the only things we have to remind us of him."

"Well," said Arizan, pulling something out of her pocket, "I'll help you look for your ring in just a minute." She held up a couple of bunches, and turned towards the mirror. Looking in the mirror at Pandie, she said "I can't really look for anything with my stupid hair flinging itself in my face."

Pandie laughed at this comment and went back to looking for the ring under the toilet cubicles, just in case it had rolled under one of them. She liked this girl, Arizan. She seemed like a new kindred spirit, in the otherwise small boring old town of Little Brook. Most of the population of the town were old age pensioners and thirty-something year old yuppies wanting to get away from it all. The only young people in the town where the Black Thorn gang, Sapphire Rose Blackwell, Mrs Garner's daughter Lee Jasmine, Casey, Pandie herself, and little Faline. Since there wasn't enough of them to run a proper school, they all had to go to the local high school, which was seven miles away in the next town. The only one who didn't have to go to school was Faline, who was 2½ years old and not old enough yet.

Suddenly Pandie heard a faint ching. Turning around, she noticed Arizan finish tying back her hair, bend down and pick up a small shiny object off the floor right next to the sink unit.

"Is this the ring, you're looking for?" she asked, still looking at the object in her hand.

"Yeah," said Pandie, as she got up, "thanks for finding it."

Continuing to look at the ring, Arizan said "No problem." Then without looking up, she asked "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," said Pandie, puzzled by the way Arizan was acting, "ask away"

Arizan looked up, "Which Night World witch circle do you belong to?"


	2. Black Catkin Part 2

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 2**

Arizan looked at the girl standing in front of her. She had long dark blonde hair that reached all the way to the middle of her back, a childlike face (which reminded Arizan of a cross between the face of a kitten and a young cat) and hazel eyes framed with long thick dark lashes. Right at that moment the girl's eyes were glowing a strange eerily green, and she looked like a cat cornered by a pack of hungry dogs, frightened and confused.

"I don't understand what you mean," she said, playing with charm on the small chain around her neck, "I am a witch if that's what you're asking, but only half, though, mind you. I don't know what a witch circle is, and what's the Night World?

"You should know," answered Arizan, pointing to the charm the girl was playing with, "you're a Night Worlder and you've got Night World identification."

The girl looked puzzled, "I've no idea what you're talking about. I've had this charm since the day I was born. It's not Night World identification, as you put it."

If they looked very closely, anyone would've noticed the charm was a dahlia with a catkin twisted around its stem, all carved out of strange black coloured wood that anyone who really knew a lot about wood would've known was lignum vitae, the wood of life.

Arizan knew the black dahlia was the symbol for all the witches in the Night World, but she didn't know what the black catkin stood for. I'll have to ask one of shape-shifters, back in Daybreak headquarters, what it means, Arizan thought to herself. "OK," she said out loud, "I'm sorry I bothered you about it."

Pandie smiled and stopped playing with the charm on her necklace. "That's okay," she said, "you weren't to know. What's this Night World you're talking about?"

"Well..." Arizan began to say.

_Arizan, how long does it take to tie up your hair?_

_Murphy_,said Arizan, to the voice in her mind, _when did you arrive?_

_About 5 minutes ago_, answered Murphy's voice in her mind, _We would've arrived sooner, but Liedryn said the two plaits she has in her hair were coming loose, and insisted on re-plaiting the stupid things. I mean, c'mon it's just hair. Who cares whether or not a couple of silly little plaits, stay plaited or not?! We're Daybreak agents, not models about to step out on a catwalk, for crying out loud!?_

Arizan tried not to laugh. Murphy was so much the opposite of her twin sister. While Liedryn always dressed perfectly, had perfect hair, and never went out anywhere if one hair was so much out of place, Murphy always turned up anywhere, looking like she'd been sleeping in her clothes and her hair loose with just a kirby grip to keep it out of her face.

But although they were the complete opposite of each other, there were some ways they were the same. They both knew how to put up a good fight, had the potential to become excellent Daybreak spies, and were both stunningly beautiful without even trying.

The last bit wasn't surprising, since they were cousins of Galen Drache, the heir to the throne of The First House of Shifters, a branch of the Night World that had recently joined Circle Daybreak.

_Anyway_, Murphy went on, _Rashel says to tell ya, if you're not out of there in the next 5 minutes, she's going to come in there with a pair of scissors, and give you a new extra short hairdo._

_What?!_

Arizan could sense Murphy fighting back a giggle. _Actually_ she said, trying to sound serious, _I think you'd suit the nearly bald look. Maybe you should stay in there._

_No way!_ Arizan laughed mentally, realising Murphy was just kidding around, _I'm getting out of here, now._

_Okay_ said Murphy, putting on a fake serious voice, _I'll break the bad news to Rashel. She was soooo looking forward to doing a bit of amateur hairdressing _This time, Arizan couldn't help laughing.

"Who was that?" asked Pandie, looking slightly amused.

"Um, that was Murphy" replied Arizan, "She's a friend of mine. How where you able to hear us?"

Pandie laughed. "I can use telepathy, just like you" she said, pushing a lock of hair off her face. "But you're not very good at blocking other people out of your mental conversations, though."

"Ah" said Arizan, realising what Pandie meant.

"Don't worry," Pandie said, smiling, as she lifted Faline down from the sink unit and they all walked towards the door out of the Ladies' rest room, "I can teach you how to block your mind, properly."

"Okay" said Arizan, pushing the door open, "on one condition."

"Name it" said Pandie.

Arizan smiled, "You let me introduce you, to my friends."

********

Hadrian stared at piece of worn out paper that Rashel had placed on the table. It had been accidentally dropped by one of the Dark One's cronies that Rashel and Quinn had been tracking. No one knew who the Dark One was, or what he (or she, for that matter) looked like. The one thing they did know was that he or she was more evil than Hunter and Maya Redfern put together.

"So, Quinn," said Ash, grinning, with a mischievous look in his (now aquamarine coloured) eyes, as he finished off the last of his ice cream, "how exactly did this guy accidentally drop the paper?"

"Oh, he 'accidentally' fell on Rashel's bokken" Quinn answered, calmly looking out the window, before looking back at the rest of the group, with a sly smile, and a raised eyebrow. Hadrian knew exactly what he meant by "accidentally", and decided there and then that this mission was going to get a lot tougher, since the Dark One would now know they where there.

"Little Blue is back out" Liedryn said, without looking up from filing her nails.

"Hey, who's that girl with her?" asked Murphy with a puzzled look on her face.

"I don't know," replied Rashel, "but she reminds me of several people. I just can't think who at the moment."

Hadrian looked up to see who they where talking about, but only the back of a girl with long hair which was a colour that reminded him of the honey tea cakes that his grandmother used to make for him and Arizan when they were little. She was wearing a black sleeveless hooded top (which attracted even more attention to the colour of her hair), a dark royal blue knee length skirt with a pattern of tiny pale blue flowers and a lace trim, and tan coloured suede flat pumps on her feet.

From what he could see, the girl had decided to get something to eat and was paying for it at the counter, while chatting away to Arizan. He caught one bit of Arizan's part of conversation, which was hard to ignore, since it was slightly louder than normal volume.

"The whole school science lab?!"

Hadrian tried to make out the rest of the conversation, but instead found himself staring at the waterfall of dark honey coloured hair.

He didn't notice Rashel put a picture of a guy with jet black hair and dark green eyes, on the table in front of him.

He didn't notice her explaining that guy in the picture was called Jasper and was an old contact of Circle Daybreak who was the only person who could read the writing on the paper they'd found.

He didn't notice the little figure run up to the table.

He didn't even notice the little figure clamber up onto his knee.

Then something broke him out of his trance.

"You're a friend of Daddy" a small voice squealed in his hear.

Suddenly, Hadrian felt two small arms wrap themselves around his neck and a small kiss was planted on his right cheek. He turned to see a little girl, who looked no older than 2, nearly 3 yeas old, with dirty blonde hair, dark green eyes and a sweet little face which at that moment was half covered in chocolate.

He was about explain that he didn't know the little girl's daddy, when suddenly he heard a soft childlike voice, "Faline, leave the boy alone. He doesn't know Dad.", and someone lifted her off him. Then he before he knew it, the voice went on, "Awww, Faline, I knew shouldn't have bought you that candy bar. You've got chocolate all over your face."

"Stop it" complained the little girl, whose name was Faline, "I'm saving it for later."

"On your face?" laughed the voice, and suddenly Hadrian could see a light tanned arm appear, with a cleaning wipe in its hand, "Here, let me clean that off your face, before you get it anywhere else..." The voice trailed off.

Suddenly the soft childlike voice was right beside him. "I'm so sorry," the voice said, "I'll clean that off, for you." Hadrian felt the damp feeling of the cleaning wipe go across his cheek, and then the touch of velvety skin, sending a small shiver right through him.

He looked to see where the voice was coming from, and found himself staring into the face of a young girl with the most beautiful eyes that he'd ever seen. They were a light hazel colour, with the slightest hint of soft green and grey in them. I could stare into eyes like those all day, he thought absent-mindedly to himself.

He was still staring into the girl's eyes, when, "Ah, I see you've already met Pandie, then" Hadrian turned his gaze back to the table, and saw six amused faces staring back at him, including Arizan who was already back in her seat.

He looked back at the girl kneeling beside him, and saw a puzzled look in her eyes. But no sooner had the look appeared on her face, it was gone in an instant, and she shook her head, causing a lock of hair to fall onto her face. Then she smiled and tucked the lock of hair back behind one of her ears.

It didn't matter, though, because Hadrian had already seen what colour the lock of hair was. It was the same as the rest of the hair on her head, a dark blonde that reminded him of honey tea cakes.

This was the girl that Murphy and Rashel had been talking about.

This was the girl who had been talking to Arizan at the counter.

This girl's name, as his sister had just mentioned, was Pandie.

And for some strange reason, although he didn't know why, he knew this name was going to send music through his mind everyday for the rest of his life.


	3. Black Catkin Part 3

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 3**

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE PARCHMENT WAS LOST?!?! WHAT FOOL WAS CARRYING IT?!?!"

Calder Blueoak winced and held the phone receiver away from his ear. This guy's worse than, Hunter Redfern, he thought to himself, At least when Hunter was in charge, I didn't get almost deafened answering the phone. "I mean, we lost it," Calder spook into the phone, "it was beyond our control. We were attacked, and Felix..."

Before he could finish what he was saying, the voice on the end of the phone interrupted him. "So, that little made vampire worm lost the parchment." said the voice, deadly calm, "Don't think I can't sense what you're thinking, Blueoak, just because I'm talking to you on this thing. You'll lose more than your hearing if you don't get that parchment back."

Immediately Calder slammed a mental wall up around his mind. "Yes sir" he said, wishing his boss would meet a fate involving a certain three people and blue fire. Yeah, Calder thought to himself, it would so delightful to see your weedy little carcass reduced to a pile of dust, Blain.

"And while I'm on the subject of the parchments," continued Blain, from the other end of the phone, "my spies have located another scroll. It's in the hands of a witch, named 'Deane Harman'. I want you to send your best men to dispose of her and retrieve the other scroll."

Calder picked up a report that had been sent to him that morning. Inside it was all the info he needed to know about Deane Harman. From what he could read in the report, Deane lived in a small town called 'Little Brook', was a widow, and...

Suddenly something in the report caught his eye. This witch didn't live on her own. She had two daughters, aged 2½ and 14 years old. He may be a cold blooded assassin in charge of a team of fighters, killers, and spies, working for the Night World, but even he didn't resort to harming innocent children.

"Sir," he spoke calmly into the phone, "the witch has two younglings. If their mother is killed, they're going to tell someone, and sooner or later Circle Daybreak will find out. Couldn't we just trick the witch into giving us the scroll?"

"No, you insolent fool!?" came the reply, "This witch is too powerful, to trick!"

"How is that, sir?"

Blain sighed, "She's a Harman, you idiot. Her family is only the most powerful witch family, in the whole Night World."

"Ah"

"So," said Blain's voice on the other end of the phone, "you will go ahead with this mission. And don't mess this one up like your last mission, or I'll personally see to it that you're staked in front of the whole Night World council."

"Yes sir," said Calder, trying to sound like a good little Night World assassin, "then what should we do about the two kids?"

"Kill them."


	4. Black Catkin Part 4

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 4**

Pandie stared at the boy in front of her. She wasn't used to people at her so intensely, and this boy was giving her strange looks. Why is he looking at me like that? she thought to herself, Have I still got some dirt on my face? I thought I cleaned that all off in the rest room.

Then, as if to answer her question, she found herself looking at her through his eyes. To him, she was mysterious, beautiful, and looked like a heroine from an ancient myth. I don't look like that, Pandie thought to herself, remembering all the times she'd arrive home from hunting, with dirt on her face, twigs in her hair, and blood on her fingers or claws, depending on whether she was in her human form or her half and half form.

Suddenly she felt something cold and wet nudge her leg. Looking down, she saw a dark brown and tan cocker spaniel sitting beside her.

"Casey," she said without thinking, "is that you?"

_No_, a voice said flatly in her head, _it's Lassie the Wonder Dog_

Then Casey cocked her head to one side, and said, _Pandz, do you realise yer talking to me, out loud?_

Before Pandie could answer Casey, one of the other boys at the table spoke. "So Rizzo," he said, turning to Arizan who was making a tissue man out of one of the napkins on the table, "Are you going to introduce us all Miss Dolittle, her little companion, and her canine friend, or do we have to guess who they are?"

"Sorry Ash," said Arizan, putting down the paper napkin man she'd just finished making, "I almost forgot. This is Pandie, Faline, and..." She looked at Casey. "Casey the dog, I think."

Then she looked at Pandie. "Um, Pandie," she said, with a puzzled look on her face, "I know we only just meet, like, today, but why are you talking to a dog?!"

"Well," Pandie began to say, "because..." But before she could finish what she was saying, an annoyed mental voice interrupted her.

_I am not a dog!? _Casey's mental voice said to everyone in the group, _I'm a dog shifter. _Then to prove her point, she began to change. Before long, in front of everyone's eyes, she changed from a small dark brown and tan cocker spaniel, to a short tanned girl with slightly wavy messy shoulder length dark brown hair and mischievous brown eyes, with a spot of mud smudged on her face, and a hole ripped in the left knee of her dark brown suede shifter trousers. "Sorry I'm so late, Pandie," Casey said, as she pulled a small twig out of her hair, "but I had to take a small detour to get here."

"Oh," she continued, her mouth forming into a smile, "is that my ice cream sundae?"

"Yeah," Pandie answered, trying not to laugh, "but don't eat it too quickly, you'll get an..."

Before she could finish, she was shoved onto the bench seat surrounding the table, and pushed along with everyone else on the seat, until Casey had made enough room for herself, and was sitting down, devouring the entire ice cream sundae that Pandie bought for her. Pandie sighed, shook her head, and finished what she had been saying, "... ice cream headache."

Since everyone was staring, amused, at the strange sight of a female dog shifter eating her way through an extra large strawberry sundae, Pandie scanned over the papers that someone in the group had spread over the table. From what she could see, there were papers on different people, and a few papers on different artefacts. One paper looked like it was part of prophecy, she recognised from the stories her father used to tell her when she was little. It was written in an ancient language, but strangely enough, Pandie found herself able to understand it very clearly.

Suddenly, a photo on the table caught her eye. Quickly, she grabbed it and stared at it.

"What's wrong, Pandie?" asked Arizan, looking concerned

"Where'd you guys get this photo, from?"

"That photo?" answered a girl with black hair and green eyes, "It was sent to us, by a friend of ours. His name's 'Jasper'. Do you know him?"

Pandie looked up from staring at the photo. Her eyes were wide and she looked slightly pale. "Yeah," she replied, still looking shocked "he's my father."

"Well, do you know where he is at the moment?"

Pandie nodded her head, slowly. "He's in Little Brook Church cemetery..." she said staring down at the table.

"Can you take us to...?" the dark haired girl began to say, but Pandie suddenly looked up, with a sad look on her face, and continued on.

"..., six feet under."


	5. Black Catkin Part 5

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 5**

Rashel looked at the girl, in the backseat, through the driver's mirror. She looked about 14 years old, and seemed pretty trustworthy, but Rashel knew from several Circle Daybreak reports that Jasper, their contact, had mysteriously stopped taking any jobs from them for a long time. To Rashel, this girl could easily just have been covering up for her father (if he was her father). She also wanted to find out if what she'd said was true.

"This is it," said Pandie, pointing out the window, "the one with the big iron gates."

Rashel drove past the gates and around the corner into an empty alleyway. Even though she and Quinn dealt with the Night World spies that had been creeping around the area, didn't mean it was safe. Trying to remove The Dark One's cronies from a city, town, or village, was like trying to remove dried bloodstains from clothing; virtually impossible.

Everyone got of the car, and started walking back up the street, towards the cemetery, the rest of the group falling into step beside them halfway. The only one, who didn't walk so soberly, was the little girl, "Faline". She reminded Rashel of Timmy, before Hunter had changed him. She seemed full of a mischief, as she ran up the road, as fast as her little legs would let her, her dirty blonde hair flying in every direction.

If she'd been six years older, Faline would have been too scared to go were they were going. But instead she was running toward the cemetery gates, like she was running towards the gates of an adventure playground.

She's too young to understand what death is, Rashel thought sadly to herself, as she continued along the footpath.

The minute they all reached the gates, Rashel sensed something was wrong. The place was too quiet, even for a graveyard, and a strange mixed smell filled the air.

"Do you smell anything strange, around here?" she asked, turning to Quinn.

"Yeah," said Quinn, quite puzzled (even for him), "it smells like death. Something's been killed here recently."

Suddenly Pandie screamed, and ran into the cemetery, to one of the nearby graves. "Oh Tuffi, little Tuffi, please don't be dead!" she yelled as she ran. Running after her, Rashel noticed a small limp form lying on one of the graves. Looking closer, she noticed it was a small grey/black cairn terrier, covered in blood.

Rashel looked at Quinn, and a message was sent between the two of them. It was times like these, Rashel was glad Quinn was her soulmate. "I'm sorry Pandie," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder, in a gesture of comfort, "but there isn't much you can do. He's lost too much blood. The best thing we can do is find somewhere for him to rest in peace."

Pandie nodded solemnly. "Thanks" she sniffed, "It's just that, I don't get it. Tuffi is one of the dogs I help look after, at the animal rescue centre outside town. Why would anyone want to kill him? He's never done anything to really annoy anyone, apart from yapping a lot."

Then, without any warning, Pandie stood very still, and stared straight ahead, her eyes glowing a strange eerily green colour. Rashel thought she mustn't have been handling the whole situation very well, and had just lost it.

She was about to tell her to snap out of it, when Pandie spoke.

"The dragon child will reveal itself here" she said in a haunting childlike voice, still staring straight ahead.

"Huh?"

Rashel had seen some weird things in her life, but this was weird with a capital W. She knew about the witch child, but she'd never heard of the dragon child. Did everyone in this place act so strangely?

Suddenly, before Rashel could ask Pandie what she was talking about, fire erupted on all sides of the whole group, and 20 black clad figures came out of the shadows and surrounded them.


	6. Black Catkin Part 6

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 6**

_It's a trap! _Murphy mind yelled to her sister as she threw a vampire thug off her into a nearby tree, and kicked him in the ribs.

_Really, you think so? _came Liedryn's sarcastic reply, _And there I was thinking it was a surprise party welcoming us to the whole town._

Murphy shot a glare at her sister before dealing with a 'wolf that was advancing on Faline, the little girl they'd met earlier. "Oi, Flea magnet" she yelled as she ran towards him, hoping to get his attention. The 'wolf looked up. "Have you seen my bad foot?" Murphy asked him, with a mock pout on her face. The 'wolf looked at her as if she was crazy.

Seizing the moment, Murphy swung her leg and kicked him in the place that she knew would hurt him the most. Right between the legs. The 'wolf yelped and doubled over in pain.

"Bad foot!" Murphy said with fake shock, wagging her finger at her foot. Turning to Faline, she whispered "Quick kid, find somewhere to hide. It's not safe for you around here." Faline nodded and ran off. As she ran, she dropped something small and shiny onto the ground. It was a small ring.

"Wait!" yelled Murphy, going to pick up the ring "You dropped something!"

However before she could pick it up, a dark figure pushed her aside, grabbed the ring and ran off.

"Hey!?"

Murphy got up and began to run after the retreating figure. But it was no good. She couldn't catch up with him. She knew that. She'd already sensed him, and his whole being was screaming _**VAMPIRE!! **_in her mind. There was only one way she could catch up with him, and that way was even a risk in itself.

But it's the only you're going to keep up with him! she thought harshly to herself, That leech can't get away with taking things that don't belong to him! C'mon girl! You knew you'd have to come out in the open, sooner or later! It might as well, be now!

Calmly she stopped and blocked everything from her mind, including the sounds of the fight going on around her. She stood for what seemed like forever on the same spot, letting the night breeze whip through her long rusty brown hair. Then, as though she had done this since she was born, she slowly changed.

Eventually she wasn't a tall girl with rusty brown hair. Instead she had turned into a beautiful German Shepherd with a rusty brown coat, a sandy muzzle, and dark toffee coloured ears.

Murphy sniffed the air, looking for the boy's scent.

There, she thought to herself, off past those trees, over there, to the south west.

Then she suddenly bounded into a fast sprint in the direction she'd smelled the boy.

As she ran, with her paws hitting the soft ground, she heard a familiar voice in the distance behind her, calling out a name she hadn't heard very often in a long while.

"Naida!!!"

Sorry sis, she thought to herself, I know I broke our promise, but I have to do this on my own.

And with that, she began to run even faster, leaving everyone in the battle that she'd just left far behind her.

*****************

Pandie looked around her. One minute she had been standing in the middle of Little Brook Cemetery being comforted by two people she'd only met a few hours ago over the horrible death of Tuffi, a little cairn terrier from the animal rescue centre she helped out at, and the next she was standing in the middle of a big field with lush green grass and exotic looking flowers she'd never seen before.

Okay, she thought to herself, have I died and not realised it? I'm sure I would've noticed if I suddenly dropped down dead. I mean, no one can pass away and still be standing up afterwards, can they?

Wait a minute, she then thought to herself, I was standing up before I ended up here. I didn't feel or notice myself keel over.

Slowly she scanned the area around her, taking in all the exotic, unearthly, and unfamiliar landscape surrounding her. A tall tree with lush green leaves and bright blue purple flowers towered over her, shading her with its big long branches.

OK, if I'm not dead, Pandie thought puzzled to herself, where am I? And how did I end up here??

Suddenly, as if to answer her question, a voice like wind chimes came out of nowhere.

"Pandora Bastet Philomae Katteken-Harman."

Pandie cringed slightly at the sound of her full name. It was bad enough having a double barrel surname, but why did her parents have to give her such a silly full name?! Honestly her parents must've been pretty giddied up with excitement at the birth of their first child that they unwittingly gave her the world's stupidest full name.

"Ahem!"

Pandie looked up to see who had interrupted her train of thought. Three feet in front of her stood a stunningly beautiful lady who looked as if she was part of everything surrounding her as much as it was part of her. She had dark purple straight glossy shoulder length hair and mysterious almond shaped eyes with rainbow flecked irises. The long sky blue sleeveless silk tunic she was wearing trailed all the way to her feet, with only her bare toes showing. On her head was a white-gold circlet with an oval shaped amethyst stone set in the centre of it in the middle of her forehead.

OK, I'm definitely not dead, thought Pandie to herself, I'm probably suffering from a bad sugar rush. I knew I shouldn't have eaten that third chocolate bar that I had in my pocket!

_No child, you're not dead or delusional._

Pandie jumped slightly. The lady had spoken to her, but this time she was speaking to her through her mind. No one had ever been able to get through the mental wall she put up around her mind to shield it from other outside minds. The only way someone could speak to her through her mind was if she spoke to them through their mind first.

"Who, who are you?" she asked with a slight stammer, "And how did I get here?"

The lady smiled and began to float in mid-air with her legs crossed. "My name is Zaykaia," she said, changing her wind chimes voice to a gentle soft one, "and I am of the arcobaleno drago."

Suddenly she waved her hand slightly, and before she knew it, Pandie found herself sitting with her legs crossed, floating in mid air as well. Zaykaia then clasped both of her hands in front of her and smiled softly.

"I am also the Traum Zauberin," she continued on, her voice changing back to the wind chimes one, "and it is I, who has brought you here."

"Um, where exactly is here?" Pandie asked, looking slightly puzzled as she looked around her, "And why did you bring me here, anyway?"

"This place is my taibhreamh crios," Zaykaia answered her, a wise and gentle smile playing across her face, "the place where I watch the world from the past to the present and to the future."

"It also the place," she went on, "where I shall speak to the only one that I can talk to while I'm here and show her the visions she needs to find the other five of her kind."

"Um, who exactly are you talking about?" asked Pandie, still slightly puzzled, "And what's she got to do with me?"

"The one I am talking about is The Moon Dragon Guardian," answered Zaykaia, "She is the one who shall find the dragon child and the rest of the dragon guardians."

_I am telling you all this_, she continued in Pandie's mind, _for you, dear child, are the Moon Dragon Guardian_


	7. Black Catkin Part 7

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 7**

After laughing, for what seemed like forever, Pandie noticed Zaykaia's face was serious, and finally sobered up. "I'm sorry," she said, coughing back a stray laugh, "but you've got to be kidding, right? I mean, how can I be The Moon Dragon Guardian? I'm only a half-breed witch-cat shifter, not a dragon! All I can do is shift into a pussy cat for hunting, or shoot witch fire from my bare hands! This is some sort of joke, isn't it?" She paused and looked at Zaykaia's face, closely. There was no expression on it, but her eyes looked sad. "You're not joking, are you?" Pandie asked quietly. Zaykaia shook her head.

"A dragon guardian isn't a dragon, but has a third of the powers of the very first dragon 'Indeigo'" she said serenely, "He was a good soul and reigned over his people with a kind and compassionate heart."

"Um, when ya say powers, what exactly do you mean?"

Zaykaia smiled again.

"Being the very first dragon, Indeigo wasn't like the other dragons." she said, speaking so Pandie would understand her, "Instead of having one kind of dragon fire, he had three kinds of dragon fire. Blue like the colour of his hair in the sunlight, violet like the colour of his hair in the moonlight and red like the colour of his wings when he was in his dragon form."

"Come," she said, looking calmly at Pandie, "I have something to show you."

Then she dropped her feet to the ground and began to change shape. Gradually she grew larger and larger, and before long instead of a tall exotic looking lady standing in front of her, Pandie saw an enormous sky blue dragon with 20 feet wide wings and a dark purple crest running all the way from its huge pointed ears to the tip of its 10 feet long tail. Its four paws were the same size as a family car.

Suddenly it lowered its head until it was resting on the ground in front of Pandie's feet. She jumped slightly, and was nearly going to run away and hide in the tall tree nearby, when Zaykaia's gentle soft voice spoke in her mind.

_Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you _she said, gently nudging Pandie's hand, _Climb on_

Warily she climbed onto Zaykaia's huge dragon head and clung tightly to the two tufts on both sides of her scalp, next to her enormous pointed ears. Oh sure, I'm not scared, she thought sarcastically to herself, Dragons are really big fluffy teddy bears from Laa Laa Land.

_Hold on tight_

Suddenly Zaykaia launched herself into the air and soared higher and higher until they were nearly above the clouds. A cool breeze gently licked at Pandie's face, soothing her and making her feel very sleepy. _Where are we going? _she asked, yawning sleepily, _Fantasia?_

We are going to the past.

Oh great, Pandie thought to herself as she rested her head against the cool silky soft scaly skin just above Zaykaia's eyes and gigantic muzzle, I'm not delusional after all. I'm just in a really bad version of 'A Christmas Carol', and it's not even Christmas anymore.

And with that last thought she closed her eyes and let the cool breeze soothe her into a deep sleep.

*****************

Fire! It was everywhere. Even though the sky overhead was gradually getting darker, the light from the fire's glowing embers lit up the whole cemetery with its orangey-red glow.

At that moment, two things where going through Arizan's mind. Fire! Danger! Run! and Get this annoying bloodsucking twerp off me!!

The vampire gripped her even tighter and breathed done her neck. "Well, well," he said through his fangs, "what have we here? A mongrel with very powerful shifter blood running through its veins." Arizan squirmed violently, trying to get out of his grasp, but it was impossible.

Who did this jerk think he was, calling her a mongrel? Just because he was a vampire, from the most powerful race in the Night World, didn't mean he had a right to insult her and expect her not to react. What did he expect her to say anyway? "Oh you hunky vampire stud, insult me more, please. And while you're at it, here, drink my blood." Ewww, no way!! Arizan thought disgustedly and struggled even harder to get out of his steel-like grip.

"Stop struggling," the vampire hissed, his breath hot against her neck, "You should be grateful you're helping to feed a poor hungry vampire like me."

Slowly, he went for her neck. Oh great, I'm gonna die, Arizan thought annoyed to herself, I'm going to die wearing stupid wooden soled shoes. Wait a minute! Wooden soled shoes! Wood!

Suddenly, without any warning, she flung her right leg forward and then swung it back again, hitting him hard in the shin. The vampire screamed in agony and let go of her to nurse his poor leg. Seizing the chance, while she still had it, Arizan quickly pulled one of the shoes off her feet and hit him across the head with it, making sure its hard wooden sole came in contact with his big thick skull.

Hmmm, so that's why Circle Daybreak make their trainee agents wear these things, she thought to herself, as she stared at the unconscious vampire sprawled out on the ground in front of her, and then at the ridiculous brown leather clog in her hand, And there I was thinking it was to make me look like a daft idiot.

Quickly she put the shoe back on her foot, and went to search for the others. Trust me to be the only one to get separated from the team at a time like this, she thought as she trudged through the grave yard to the main part of the cemetery.

* * *

Pandie woke up to find herself curled up in a chair in a hospital waiting room. The posters on the walls looked dated and the whole place looked like it was stuck in the eighties. Then she remembered what had happened.

Quickly she sat up and looked over at the chair next to her to see Zaykaia smiling at her. "Where are we?" Pandie asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"This is hospital where you and the dragon child where born" Zaykaia answered her, still smiling, "Look." She indicated to two figures coming through the door, carrying a small bundle each.

The young nurse looked up from her post. "Uh, Mrs Hashteher," she said, clearing her throat slightly, "shouldn't you be resting at the moment? It's only a day after you gave birth to your quadruplets." One of the two ladies looked up from cooing at the small bundle in her arms and smiled. She had long pale silvery white blonde hair that looked like moonlight swirling around her, and bright blue eyes the colour of sapphires. To Pandie she didn't look like a woman who had recently given birth. The only thing that gave any clue to that was the soft glow to her skin that most pregnant and post-pregnant mothers had.

"I'm okay, Nurse Carel" she said, gently rocking the baby in her arms, "I'm just keeping my friend Dea, company."

"OK," Nurse Carel said, smiling serenely, "but if you need any help with little Ari, just come straight back here, or ask one of the other nurses nearby."

"Yes ma'am" the lady answered her, putting her right up in a mock salute, whilst gently cradling her baby, before grinning playfully, "Sorry, just messin' with ya, there"

"Don't worry Mrs Hashteher..."

"Please," the lady quickly interrupted her, "call me Lucia. Being called Mrs Hashteher all the time makes me feel like a boring old housewife."

"Okay Lucia." smiled Nurse Carel, "As I was about to say, you needn't worry about being a handful. Just because I worked at an army hospital before I started working here, doesn't mean I'm going to start worrying about you ladies throwing bandage rolls all over the place when my back is turned, making balloons out of all the rubber gloves and having high speed wheelchair races down all the hospital corridors."

Suddenly, without any warning, the phone in front of her, beeped. "Believe me" she continued as she lifted the receiver from the phone in front of her and slowly moved it towards her ear, "looking after a ward of pregnant and post-pregnant mothers and their babies is lot easier than looking after a ward of post adolescent immature young soldiers who think all a nurse does is provide them with something pretty to gawp at."

"Hello, this is the maternity department. I'm sorry sir, but..."

Before she could finish what she was saying, two men came through the doors and walked up to the work station Nurse Carel was posted at. One of the men was tall with blood red hair and yellow eyes. He looked like he was in his thirties, but Pandie a distinct feeling he'd been around for a lot longer than that. As well as that, all her senses were screaming "Vampire!" at her.

"Don't worry, Pandora" said Zaykaia, suddenly appearing at her side, but speaking gently so as not to alarm her, "he can't see you."

Feeling some sense of relief, Pandie watched the red haired man talk to the nurse at the work station. For a while the nurse was adamant on there being no visitors allowed, because visiting hours where over, but suddenly, without any warning, she nodded her head and pointed over to the two mothers.

"Yes sir, that's Miss Harman over there" she said, her voice sounding exactly like she could be talking in her sleep, except for the fact that she was wide awake, "Would you like one of the other nurses to show you where the family room is?"

It was as though her mind had been taken out of her control and someone else had taken over it for those few minutes. At first, Pandie thought it was the vampire that was controlling the nurse's mind, but when she looked closer at his eyes they didn't have the intense look most vampires had when they were brainwashing someone.

A deep fear ran through Pandie as she turned to look at the other man. He can't see me! He can't see me! He can't see me! she repeated desperately, over and over again in her mind. He was an inch shorter than the vampire and wore a long black trench over what looked like black trousers and a black shirt. His hair was inky black, but had chunks of white in it, and his skin was strangely pale in contrast to it. The only feature she couldn't make out were his eyes. They were obscured by the dark glasses he was wearing.

"It's him, Lu!" whispered a very frightened but familiar voice from behind Pandie, "He's come to take my baby away from me!"

For the first time Pandie realised who the other lady was. As she turned around she wished she could run up to her and tell her she was fine and that the horrible vampire hadn't taken her away after all. She looked a lot younger; none of the small lines around her eyes had appeared yet. Her rich honey gold hair was slightly longer than normal and her strange grey brown eyes were bright like they had been before Pandie's father had died. Anyone else wouldn't have recognised her, but Pandie knew better. The woman standing in front of her, clutching the small bundle in her arms close to her, was her mother, Deane Harman.


	8. Black Catkin Part 8

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 8**

"Owww, someone make the world stop spinning so fast, please!"

Arizan looked around to see where the voice was coming from. By now the smoke from the fire surrounding the cemetery was so thick, she couldn't see her hands in front of her face. Why does this feel so familiar? she thought to herself, ignoring the fear rising in the pit of her stomach.

Crawling along the ground to avoid breathing in the smoke, she spotted a nearly familiar pair of feet. Scrambling as quickly as she could, she moved to where the feet where standing.

"Casey?"

"Huh? *cough* Who's there?"

"It's me, weirdy girl."

"Pa *cough* Pandie?"

"Nah, it's me, Arizan."

"Oh *cough* yer the *cough* girl from the *cough* café."

"Yeah! But never mind that! Get down before you suffer from anymore smoke inhalation!"

Suddenly realising what was going on, Casey quickly dropped down beside Arizan. Both girls crawled along the ground, ignoring the heat rising from the ground, and the little bits of dry grass sticking themselves into the palms of their hands.

"So yer Pandie's friend?" Arizan asked Casey, trying to make casual conversation, while keeping her senses alert for any danger, "How long have ya known her for?"

"Yeah, she's my best friend" Casey replied, keeping her own senses alert, "We've been friends since we were little."

"Cool"

"Damn!!"

"What?" Arizan turned suddenly, and asked the dog shifter, "What's wrong?"

"It's this stupid smoke!" scowled Casey, hitting the ground with her fist, "I can't smell a thing! I can't even smell Pandie!"

"You don't have to smell her!" whispered a familiar voice out of nowhere, "She's over here!"

"Rashel?"

"Yeah"

"Why are ya standing?" Arizan asked the black haired vampire hunter, "This place is covered with smoke."

"Not where I'm standing."

"What?"

As she quickly wriggled to get where Rashel was, Arizan puzzled through her mind why there was one area of the grave yard that didn't have any smoke covering it. Smoke from big fires usually covered the whole area it took up, and this was a big fire, she could tell.

But sure enough when she reached where Rashel was standing, she realised she could breath easier, and the ground wasn't burning her hands. When she stood up and looked around her, she could see it wasn't a small area that was uncovered by the smoke.

"Hey! Didn't anyone ever teach ya not to leave people behind? Whoa!"

"Yeah"

"I thought smoke from a big fire was supposed to cover the whole area."

"Me too"

"Not conveniently leave out an area the size of a school gym."

"My thoughts exactly"

"Okay, I'm sure this is a very interesting thing to discuss," Rashel said, putting her hair up into a messy bun, "but right now the rest of this place is being burned up by fire and we've no way of getting out. Unless you guys want to crawl blindly through the smoke again?"

Both Arizan and Casey shook their heads furiously. She may have felt like being a rebel sometimes, but Arizan knew that even she couldn't risk going back through the smoke again. The Night World henchmen were lurking in it, waiting to pounce on them at any minute without warning.

"Good" said Rashel, her voice calm and collected, "Then maybe you two can figure out how to get our friend Pandie here out of zombie mode."

Arizan didn't realise what Rashel meant, until she saw Pandie's life long best friend run up to her and gently shook her by the shoulders. "Hey Pandz" Casey said, her cheery voice laced slightly with worry, "C'mon girlfriend! Snap out of it! Please!" Pandie didn't respond at all to the sound of her best friend's pleas. Instead she stood there, both feet firmly planted on the ground, her arms by her sides and her eyes open, staring straight ahead, unseeing.

"She's been like that since before the fire started." Rashel said, as she sprayed a piece of black material until it was damp and tied it over her face, covering her nose and her mouth, "She just said something about the dragon child revealing itself here and stopped talking after that."

Arizan felt the words "dragon child" ring through her mind. Why did they seem so familiar to her? For a few minutes she stood there, staring straight ahead, the same way Pandie was standing. But unlike Pandie, she was totally aware of what was going on around her. She could see the strange wall of smoke surrounding them, twist and swirl. She could see Casey fidget with her hair for a bit, before sitting down, then immediately getting up again, which wasn't surprising since her real form was that of an animal that felt very nervous when trapped in one place with no way out. And she could see Rashel pull the hood of her jacket over her head and begin walking back towards the smoke.

"Uh, Rashel," she said, slowly realising where the vampire hunter was heading, "Where are you going?"

"To get rid of a few of those idiots"

"Okay." Arizan yelled after Rashel, as she disappeared into the smoke, "See if you can find Murphy, while you're at it."

She knew where everyone else was. Hadrian, her big brother, and Ash, his friend, were waiting in a car near the cemetery; ready to send a warning if they saw anyone suspicious enter the cemetery after them. Quinn was lurking around a few of the henchmen, who were witches, waiting to pounce on them as soon as they couldn't bear the smoke choking their lungs anymore. She knew this because she had seen him crouching near one of the tombstones before she and Casey had heard Rashel's voice and reached temporary safety. Quinn knew that she saw him, and had sent a message to her mind not to give his location away and that Rashel was nearby. She had also seen Liedryn punching and kicking a shifter as though she was letting out some unseen anger. But the one person she hadn't seen was Murphy.

As if to answer her unasked question, the shifter princess' twin sister stomped out of the smoke and pulled a damp Chanel scarf off her face. Her face was flushed and her hair was a mess, but she looked like she couldn't care less. Something else seemed to be bothering her.

"Li, have you seen..."

"If you're wanting to know where Naida is," Liedryn interrupted crossly, using Murphy's real name, "don't ask me. I don't know where she is and I don't care."

Great, Arizan thought sarcastically to herself as she watched Liedryn sit down on the ground near her and began throwing bits of gravel at the smoke, My best friend is missing and the only real friend I've made in this place is stuck in Daydream Land. How peachy.


	9. Black Catkin Part 9

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 9**

Meanwhile two figures crept through the forest outside the cemetery, away from the fire. One was that of a young man with creamy blonde hair and huge piercing light blue eyes. And the other was that of a young dog: a German Shepherd to be precise.

Suddenly the young man turned to face the German Shepherd. "Give it up, Princess" he said calmly, "Whatever it is you want from me, you're not going to get it without a fight." At his very words, the German Shepherd changed back into the form of a tall beautiful girl with long rusty brown hair and warm coffee coloured eyes.

"Give me the ring," Murphy said, staring him straight in the eyes, "or you'll regret it."

"I'll regret it?" he laughed, "What makes you think you can make me give you anything, Princess?"

Even though she was a Drache, part of The First House, making her royalty in the Night World especially amongst the shifters, Murphy hated being called Princess. "The last person who called me Princess ended up nursing two broken legs and a bruised arm" she said, keeping her voice deadly calm, "Don't tell me you want the same to happen to you?"

"You don't scare me, Princess" the young man said, his own voice deadly calm, "I'm very aware of your fighting style, and it's going to take more than a few broken limbs and some bruises to make me fear you."

"You're lying."

"Am I?"

Murphy felt like screaming. Here she was trying to get a ring back that belonged to Faline, the little sister of the girl they'd all met at the ice cream parlour, and the person who took the ring happened to be the biggest loser on the whole planet.

If you can't stand him, why do you keep running up to him and end up kissing him senseless, over and over again in your mind? the little voice in her head taunted, Admit it, you like him.

No I don't, she told herself, trying to cover up the truth, I'd rather go jump off a short pier than kiss him.

"What's wrong, Princess?" mocked the young man, "Afraid I'll be too strong for you to fight?"

"I'm not afraid of you!" she said angrily, realising he was making fun of her, "Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean that I'm weaker than you!"

But try as she might, she couldn't stop a stray thought escape into her mind. Yes, I'm afraid, it thought worriedly, I'm afraid I'll fall in love.

****************

"Why are you being so irrational, witch?!"

"I'm not being irrational; I'm protecting my child from the likes of you!!"

Pandie had followed her mother and the two men into the visitor's room on Zaykaia's instructions, and now she was wishing she hadn't bothered. The vampire's shouting was louder than she could bear, and being half cat shifter her hearing was very sensitive.

"Is that why you gave it to that half-breed slut before you came in here?" the vampire sneered, "Scared I was going to take it from you and drain it of its blood before your very eyes?"

Deane stared daggers at him. "My child is not an inanimate object to be referred to without feeling." she said, her voice icy, "She has a name. Her name is Pandora." The vampire laughed cruelly.

"Do you really think I care what it's called?" he said, coldness suddenly creeping back into his voice, "Your child is lower than dirt as far as I'm concerned."

Right at that moment Pandie wished she wasn't invisible. If you were in my time, creep, she thought to herself, feeling her nails lengthen into the more familiar claws she was used to in her cat form, I'd show you what dirt can do.

"Anyway, that doesn't matter" the vampire said, ignoring the death stares coming from Deane, "You've heard of the Millennium Prophecies."

"Yes, I know about the Wild Powers." Deane answered him bitterly, "I hope one of them fries you to a crisp."

"Well, it seems there's an eency weency little prophecy somewhere saying that six will be born to help the Wild Powers in the final battle," he said, paying no attention to the insult that was just thrown at him, "and it seems your child is one of them."

"But you knew that already, didn't you." he went on, "And the really interesting bit is it seems your child is the key to finding the others of the six."

"So you don't want my child to destroy her" Deane finally said, bitterness still in her voice, "You want her so you can find these other five children and then destroy her along with them."

"That's were you're wrong, witch."

Somehow though, Pandie had a deep feeling that the vampire was lying. Her mother seemed to think so too. "Cut the crap, Hunter." she said flatly, looking down at the floor, "I've worked for you before. I know what you're like, and you're definitely not all goodness and light. The only way you could possibly change is if, by some crazy chance, you find your soulmate."

"But you haven't found your soulmate, yet," she went on, as she looked up, "have you?"

"So, you won't give your child to Mr Moreno, then?"

"I'd rather give my child to a pack of wolves than give her to him."

"Not even if she could help the Night World gain power again over the world." Hunter pressed on, not giving up, "Mr Moreno here says he can help your child to learn how to use its powers."

As he said this, the man with the black and white hair took off his glasses. Pandie gasped, frozen to the spot with fear. The man's eyes where completely black with no sign of any white surrounding them. And when he brushed his hair of his forehead she could make out eight downy lumps underneath. Her mother's friend Cornelia told her about creatures like him. Dark dragons. Some where good, since they had learned how to live among humans without harming them and hadn't given into the blackness in their hearts. Cornelia herself was one of them. And some where evil, who wouldn't think twice about killing an innocent human being and let the blackness in their hearts seep into their whole being. This guy was of the latter description.

"Hunter, I'd rather give up my whole life," Deane said, her voice firm, "than let you make my child help you and your dragon friend plunge the whole world into darkness and despair."

"Have it your way." Hunter said, as his fangs grew, indenting his lower lip, and his eyes glowed yellow, "Your life ends here and now."

"Sorry Hunter," said the honey golden haired witch defiantly, gold witch power already glowing between her cupped hands, "I plan on living a lot longer than you're thinking"

With that, she threw the witch power from her hands, and the whole room was filled with gold light.

When the gold light finally disappeared from her vision, Pandie found that she was no longer in the hospital visitors' room, but in a room in a burning building. Even stranger was that somehow she'd changed into her cat form.

How'd that happen? she thought, puzzled, to herself.

"Mummy, mummy, please wake up."

Pandie looked around to see where the voice was coming from. It was very young and full of fear. Then in the corner of the burning room she noticed a small figure knelt over what looked like someone sprawled out on the floor. Slowly she realised the small figure was that of a small girl. She couldn't tell what colour her hair was, as it was covered in soot, and the room was so dim she couldn't make out the colour of her eyes.

But she realised who the person sprawled out on the floor was. There was only one other person she'd seen with silvery white blonde hair the colour of moonlight. The other lady she'd seen in the hospital with her mother: Lucia Hashteher.

_Don't cry little girl._

The small child's head shot up suddenly. "Oh, a kitty" she said between sniffs, wiping the tears from her eyes with her sleeve, "Did you just speak to me, kitty?"

Pandie looked at the little girl sitting in front of her. Why does her voice sound so familiar? she thought to herself. Looking around the room, she realised Zaykaia was nowhere to be seen. She was on her own.

_Yes, little one. _Pandie said, keeping her mental voice gentle, _I'm speaking to you_

"You talk just like Mummy and Daddy do sometimes." the little girl said, pointing to her head, "In here."

_That's right _said Pandie, her eyes smiling, even though she wasn't in her human form, _Can I ask you why you were crying?_

"Because of the hot stuff" sniffed the little girl, "Mummy was reading me a story to cheer me up because I was feeling unwell, and suddenly all this hot stuff appeared from nowhere. Now Mummy won't wake up!"

Looking at the little girl, Pandie was reminded of the one time she'd had use her power of protection. It had happened six months ago, during a severe thunder and lightning storm, when Pandie was taking her little sister Faline home after teaching her how to shape shift into her true form of a cat. There had been nowhere to shelter, and home was still too far away to get to safely. But can I do it, again? she thought to herself, Maybe I can at least save her life, unlike her poor mother's?

Deciding give her power of protection another try, Pandie padded her way over to the little girl, purring gently, and curled up close beside her. Slowly, as if being lulled by Pandie's soft purring, the little girl lay down and curled up with her hand on Pandie's head as if she was about to stroke a normal cat. Carefully, Pandie shut her eyes and imagined a soft glow surrounding herself and the little girl, until she could hear the sound of its gentle humming. Her power of protection still worked.

Beside her the little girl shivered. Pandie knew she wasn't shivering from the cold. It was way too warm for that. The little girl was shivering from fear. Remembering a lullaby her mother used to sing to her when she was very little, and couldn't go to sleep because she was too afraid to, Pandie began to sing gently into the little girl's mind.

_Hush little angel, don't you cry_

_I'm here to sing you a lullaby_

_Come take my hand, we'll fly away_

_To a dream land, where you and I will play_

By the time she had finished singing the last line Pandie could feel that the little girl had stopped shivering and was now breathing slowly but gently, lost in a deep and peaceful sleep. Sleep well little one, she thought to the little girl, remembering something she'd often heard her mother saying to Faline after she'd tucked her up in her bed sound asleep, May the angels protect you while you dream.

Suddenly a strange light appeared in the middle room. In contrast to the orange glow from the fire slowly burning up the whole building it was much brighter. In the middle of the light stood Lucia Hashteher.

"Thank you, Pandora, Daughter of Hellewise, Child of Kedi" she said gently, her voice echoing softly, "You have protected my little Ari from the evil of the Dark One. Now that the fire he sent to kill her is now dying away, she is free to live on to fight against him, by your side, in your time."

Then two more women appeared on either side of Lucia. One of the women, she recognised as Zaykaia. The other woman, she'd never seen before. She had soft blonde hair and gentle brown eyes. Just by looking at her Pandie could tell she was very important.

"Pandora," spoke the soft blonde haired woman with an authoritative but gentle voice, "as Hellewise, Daughter of Hecate, Witch Queen, I must ask you, do you accept your place on the side of light in the final battle?"

_Yes_

Pandie didn't know why she said yes, but she knew she wanted to be able to stop people like the vampire and the dragon that had tried to take her away from her mother from taking over the world and plunging it into darkness and despair. Watch out Mr Moreno, she thought to herself, Deane Harman's daughter still lives and she's going to help kick your evil little dragon butt.

"My role here is done." Hellewise said smiling, "I now leave you in the hands of the Traum Zauberin to send you back to your own time."

With those words Zaykaia stepped forward. A soft amethyst light glowed between her cupped hands. "Moon Dragon Guardian" she said, her voice once again sounding of wind chimes, "the hope of finding the other dragon guardians, the fate of the Wild Powers, and in turn the fate of the world, rests in your hands. Your task here is done. Now, as the Traum Zauberin, I send you back to your own time."

Suddenly the amethyst light escaped from Zaykaia's hands and filled Pandie's vision. As it slowly clearly, she heard a familiar voice beside her.

"Wait a minute, guys. I think she's back."


	10. Black Catkin Part 10

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 10**

Hadrian looked at his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time. "They've been in that place too long." he muttered, looking out the car window, "Maybe we should go in?" Ash looked from the hand held video game he was playing. Both his feet where rested on the dash board and his seat was pushed far back to give him more room. He looked every bit the big blonde cat. "Chill out, Dri-man" he said casually, his now moss green eyes looking calm, "Rashel and Quinn know what they're doing."

Suddenly several cars roared past them and a few men came running along the path beside them. Taking charge, Ash rolled down the window and stuck his head out. "Hey man!" he shouted to a guy with spiky blood red hair and brown eyes running past the car, "What's the rush?"

"There's a fire down at the cemetery" the guy said, gasping from all running he'd been doing, "The whole place and half the forest surrounding is alight."

Quickly, Hadrian rolled down the other window and stuck his head out, looking over the roof of the car. "Hey," he said, trying not to let his worry show, "was there anyone in the cemetery when the fire started?"

"Someone said they saw a boy, seven girls including a little girl enter the grave yard a while ago" came the reply, "But that was some time ago, and no one saw them leave."

Slowly Hadrian looked at Ash. Ash's face mirrored his own. Fear. Fear for Ash, because he would be letting Mary-Lynette down if he didn't save his friends from the fire, but he knew it could hurt him or easily kill him. And fear for himself, because deep down inside he knew there was person in the cemetery, in the middle of the fire, that he would never be whole without, if they died.

* * *

"Nine hundred and ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, nine hundred and ninety nine bottles of..."

"Wait a minute, guys. I think she's back."

"...wait a minute, guys, I think she's back on the wall. Take one down, pass it... Hey! That's not how it goes!"

Arizan laughed at the young dog shifter's remark and shook her head. "No" she said, coughing back a stray laugh, "I meant, Pandie's coming around. Y'know, back from Zombie Land. Look."

All three girls stared at Pandie. Up until then, she had been standing completely still, not moving a muscle. But now her eyes were blinking and her nose was twitching.

"PANDIE!!!"

Both Pandie and Casey fell to the ground. "Um, yeah Case," mumbled Pandie, bewilderment showing on her face as she got back on her feet and brushed herself down "it's great to see you too, but I haven't been away or anything, ya know."

Suddenly she looked around her. "Wow," she said, waving her hand about, "Where'd all this come from?" Arizan walked over to part of the smoke wall.

"Oh, you mean this?" she said, pointing to the wall, "Apparently after you went all zombie on us, some idiots decided to set the whole place alight and attack us at the same time."

"What's with the smoky wall?"

"Ah, le smokey wall" came Arizan's reply, "That's been here since the fire got to its worst point. Strangely enough, you're the only person it surrounded. We all had to crawl through the smoke to get in here."

"The Traum Zauberin."

"Huh!"

"Nothing" said Pandie, shaking her head, "So how do we get out of here, then?"

As if to answer her question, the wall of smoke began to collapse. Now she could see what Arizan meant. The whole place was on fire. Orangey red flames covered almost everything.

Just at that moment four guys dressed totally in black pounced on the unsuspecting girls. At first everything went okay. Casey shifted into her dog form right in front of the idiot who had dared to grab her and proceeded to bite his leg, hard.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!" he screamed, clutching his leg, "She just bit me!"

"Oof! Aaaaoooow!"

Arizan looked around and saw Liedryn glaring at a 'wolf cowering on the ground in front of her. "I told you to keep your muddy paws off me." she hissed at him, kicking him in the stomach, "Do you realise how much it costs to clean cashmere?! It's already covered in soot, and now you want to make it worse by adding mud to it?! And for your information, I am not your Sweetcakes!?!"

Muttering under his breath, the 'wolf slowly began to get up. Quickly, before he could get more than an inch off the ground, Arizan lashed out at the 'wolf with her witch power, using it to hold him down.

"Not so fast, Fido" she said, trying to put as much authority into her voice as possible, "You're staying there until you tell us who sent you."

"I don't think so."

Before she could react to the words spoken behind her, Arizan felt a strong hand cover her mouth and the tip of something sharp and metal dig into her back.

"I don't like getting hit with a shoe," hissed the vampire, who had obviously recovered from the little sleep he'd been sent into, "even if it has got a wooden sole. Us vampires have our dignity, you know."

Oh, give me a break! Arizan thought to herself, Is there some Night World rule that I don't know about. Vampires, if you find that you're about to be knocked out with wood, make sure whoever's about to knock you out uses a great big wooden club, or possibly a good thick tree branch, and not a brown leather wooden soled clog. If they use the third item, everyone in the Night World is entitled to call you a wuss?!

"Now, release Rick," the vampire continued, "or this iron knife is going straight through you and out the other side."

Reluctantly, Arizan withdrew the witch power holding down the 'wolf. Slowly, the 'wolf got up again and this time took the chance to change. But nothing happened.

"Ulrick!" the vampire said through clenched teeth, "Change, you moron!"

"I can't!" came the reply, "I've forgotten how!!"

"What do you mean you've forgotten how?!" said the vampire, anger rising in his voice, "Changing into your wolf form is all you 'wolves are good at! You can't just forget!"

If she wasn't stuck in a life or death at that moment, Arizan would've laughed. Here where two loyal members of the Night World, dedicated to ridding the world of the vermin, known as humans, except for the ones they would keep for food and slavery. But there they were, a vampire and a werewolf, arguing back and forth like humans.

"I don't know why I've forgotten how to change!" the wolf went on, "I've just forgotten!!"

Arizan looked at the others. Liedryn was standing in a fighting stance, ready to pounce when given the chance. Casey, still in her dog form, was crouching down on all fours, snarling at the witch she'd just bitten. And another witch had managed to grab Pandie from behind and was holding her right arm, high up and close behind her back. But when Arizan looked at Pandie's face, her new friend grinned back at her.

"OK mongrel!" the vampire snarled, "this is your doing again, isn't it?! I'm going to have to go into that worthless little mind of yours and make you stop your stupid tricks!"

_Rizzo_ Pandie's voice called mentally to Arizan, _remember how I said early that I'd teach you how to block your mind properly? Well, I'm going to teach how do that now._

"Hey," the vampire went on, this time smiling arrogantly, "maybe I'll get the location of Circle Daybreak while I'm at it. The Dark One will definitely give me a big promotion for that."

_Okay, while Fang Face blabs on_, Pandie said mentally, while the vampire kept singing his own praises, _imagine a big thick solid metal wall surrounding your mind._

Following Pandie's instructions, Arizan imagined a big thick solid metal wall surrounding her mind. She made it extra thick and extra high so nothing could get through.

"But that's enough about how great I am." the vampire said, finally stopping going on about himself, "Now I'm going to rearrange that worthless little mind of yours, mongrel."

_Um, Pandz _Arizan spoke mentally to the dark honey blonde haired girl standing near her, _He's going to find out I'm blocking my mind and turn me into shish kebab when he does!!_

_Okay_ Pandie's mental voice said calmly, _imagine the wall surrounding your mind has a powerful electric current running through it._

It was strange, but Arizan could almost feel the powerful electricity as she imagined it running through the wall surrounding her mind. She could almost picture little bright blue white sparks jumping about over the wall's smooth surface. Slowly she felt the vampire's mind poking around her mind, trying to get into its main part. Fortunately the electric mind wall worked, because the vampire winced as though he was in pain.

Yes! Take that Fang Face! she thought triumphantly, then to Pandie, _By the way Pandz, he's still poking around in my mind, ya know. How do I get him out of my mind completely?_

_Just throw all the electricity in your mind wall at him next time he tries get through _came Pandie's mischievous reply, _He'll definitely find that mind shocking._

As soon as Pandie's last few words spoke in her head, Arizan felt the vampire once more poking and prodding her mind. Instinctively knowing what to do, and how to do it, Arizan gathered all the electricity in her mind and threw it at the vampire. Instantly the vampire was thrown off her, landing three feet away from her, the long iron knife dropping out of his hand. At the same time, Pandie yanked her arm free of the witch's tight grasp, twisting his arm as she did so, and then threw him to the ground, hard.

"You little bitch!" the vampire snarled at Arizan, grabbing his knife as he got up, "Armand! Gerard! Ulrick! Help me get rid of this worthless little mongrel!!!"

The last few words the vampire spoke were the last straw. Somewhere inside Arizan's mind something snapped. As soon as the four Night World thugs surrounded her, the strange words instantly came from her mouth.

"Codladh agus dearmad, calaois namhaids lán i fuathaigh!"

"Oooooh, I'm sooo scared" the vampire said sarcastically, "Trying to freak us out with big scary weird words."

"Do tórramh focal"

"She's clearly lost her mind with fear, Silas" laughed the witch who'd been holding Pandie, arrogantly ignoring the pain from his arm being twisted, "She's so scared, she's started gibbering her head off!"

"SÉALA DO CINNIÚINT!!!"

Arizan yelled the last few words louder than anyone could possibly manage. Even Casey was grouching on the ground with her paws over her ears. Suddenly the four Night World thugs dropped to the ground as if they all had passed out at once.

"Oookaay! That," said Pandie, her face full of bewilderment, "I didn't teach you."


	11. Black Catkin Part 11

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 11**

"Dri! Slow down man! It's probably not as bad as you think!"

Ash knew his friend rarely overreacted, but this time he was sure this was one of those rare moments. As soon as he finally caught up with Hadrian and joined the big crowd at the gates of the cemetery, he knew he was wrong.

For a small town their cemetery was enormous and right now most of it was a blazing inferno. OK, I was wrong, Ash thought to himself, It's not as bad as that. It's worse

"Ash!!! Quit staring, will you, and give me a boost up?!"

Ash looked over to the wall to the left near the cemetery gates and saw Hadrian scrambling to get over to the other side. "Uh, are you mad?!" he said, walking over to Hadrian and clasping his hands out low in front of him to make a makeshift step, "Y'know how Thierry feels about us going into this kind of situation without going to the people dealing with it first!!"

Hadrian stopped and stared at him. "What if any of them are Night Worlders?!" he said quietly through his teeth, "That's worse, isn't it?!"

"Hmm, okay, I see what you mean."

"Anyway," Hadrian said as he climbed up onto Ash's clasped hands and onto the wall, "It's personal. My sister is in there and she's not exactly the best in the middle of a fire. I have to get in there before she starts freaking out."

"OK, man" Ash said calmly, "I understand."

He knew when Arizan was little she had been trapped in a house fire and had lost someone really close to her. Arizan reminded him a lot of Jade and Damson rolled into one. While everyone in Circle Daybreak knew he had three sisters; Rowan, Kestrel, and Jade, he never told anyone about his fourth and youngest sister, Damson. Not even his soulmate, Mary-Lynette. Damson had been the family pest, always getting up to mischief, and always dragging Ash into it. But while that had been one side of her, the other side was a smart kid, who cared for her family and friends. That was until she had been killed by a vampire hunter, during a runner from the enclave. And Ash had witnessed it all.

I won't think about it! I won't think about it! Ash repeated again and again in his head, If I don't think about it, I won't see it happen again!

But he knew this was no use. The unwelcome memories and voices flowed into his head so fast he could almost picture it all over again.

"Awww, c'mon Ash" Damson had said, in her usual mischievous voice, "I wanna see what a real human town is really like."

"Dams," Ash had said calmly, "if Father finds out that we both left the enclave, and I let you talk me into it, he's going to have our heads, never mind going into a human town. The answer's no."

Ash remembered his little sister's face that night when he had spoken those words to her. Her dark purple eyes had looked as though they had been about to flow over with tears, and the bottom lip on her small mouth had been trembling slightly. She hadn't even bothered to pull a strand of her long chocolaty brown hair off her face, that had been blown there, by the wind.

"Okay," he had sighed, in defeat, "we'll take a short look, but that's all. And don't mention any of this to Father when we get back. He still thinks I took you for a ride in one of the boats around the water surrounding the island."

Damson's face had changed instantly when he had said this. Her eyes had begun to sparkle again and her small mouth had broken into a big pointy toothed smile. And that had been the last time she smiled at him. What had happened next, had been a blur, but Ash remembered it very clearly.

The dark cloaked figure had suddenly appeared three feet behind the young lamia female, holding up a big heavy weapon. Damson hadn't even noticed the wooden bolt hurtling towards her until it was too late.

Ash closed his eyes tight and willed the next image to go away. He didn't want to remember the look on Damson's face as she lay dying in a pool of her own blood.

"Uh, Ash" Hadrian said, interrupting his thoughts, "Did you hear anything I said?"

"Huh! Sorry, I was somewhere else there"

The younger Daybreaker sighed as he sat with his legs on the other side of the wall, ready to jump. "I said keep a look out while I try to find Arizan and the others." he said patiently, before pausing to look closer at Ash, "Hey man, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" Ash said, forcing himself to smile, "It's no biggy. Now get in there before someone sees you"

"Okay Ash, whatever you say."

And with that, Hadrian disappeared over to the other side of the wall. Not even one of the men that came over to ask Ash why he was loitering around there, had noticed him.

This is for you Damson, he thought to himself as one of the men began asking him why he was hanging around a danger zone, Just like the old times.

*******************

Silas Aethnen ached all over. Whatever that little mongrel did to him, she was going to pay with her own blood. No one pulled a fast one on him and ever lived to get away with it.

What was I supposed to be doing here, anyway? he thought to himself, as he rubbed his head, Oh yeah, I remember now. Retrieve lost parchment, kill Daybreaker agents, and get the black witch cat charm.

The dark blonde weirdo witch had been wearing it around her neck, but she was gone, along with the others he thought he and his fellow Night World agents had captured. Wait a minute?! Gone?!

Frantically he looked around to see where they went to, in case he could catch up with them and get the charm. _Armand! Gerard! Ulrick! _he mind yelled, waking up the other Night Worlders sprawled around him _They got away! Find them quick, before The Fire Flame finds out!?!_

Suddenly he sensed someone walking towards them. Terror crawled up and down his spine. It was too late to go get the charm, now. The Fire Flame had found them, and she knew they had failed.

Standing in front of them, Ethne Celosia looked like any normal 13½ year old. But she was a lot smarter and deadlier for her age, and had a strange beauty to her that suited her name. Her dark ruby coloured eyes burned with anger, while her long flame, copper, and blood red hair danced around her head, like it was fire itself. In her hands was the deadliest thing of all; a large ball of burning flame.

"We're dead." Silas said, too full of fear to realise he was saying it out loud, "We're so dead."

Then it happened before he could get away. The fire ball flew towards them, growing larger and larger, until he and the three other Night World agents around him, where surrounded and covered in flames.

Writhing in agony, the flames slowing eating away through him, the last words the little mongrel witch had uttered came into his mind. But for some strange reason, the words translated themselves into his head.

YOUR WAKING WORDS SEAL YOUR FATE

Only one person could utter a curse that powerful. He had seen it mentioned on one of the scrolls The Dark One kept. The dragon child.

Too bad, I won't be able to hand her over to The Dark One now, he thought bitterly to himself, no longer feeling any pain even though he was still on fire, Too bad!

And with that he fell. Deeper and deeper into the darkness, until it totally surrounded him and he could feel no more. Silas Aethnen was now dead.


	12. Black Catkin Part 12

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 12**

Blain Moreno smiled evilly to himself. Those stupid Daybreakers didn't suspect a thing. He shook the image in his hands a bit to make sure the link was still there. The image wavered a bit and settled down once more. Little did those Circle Daybreak fools realize he had seen them in that cafe. He didn't have to be there, in person, he just used some human fool as his eyes.

So, they were going to look for the grave of Jasper Katteken aka The Black Catkin, the infamous secret agent who chose to help Daybreak, but never joined them. He had decided this would bring him one step closer to unlocking the ultimate power of The Six. All he needed was for his cronies to bring back the black witch cat charm and ring that where in the possession of Katteken's foolish half-breed daughters, and he would be able to locate the next part of the prophecy.

Suddenly the image in his hand glowed, breaking him out of his thoughts. A young face with sharp features and long red hair swirling around it like fire appeared, frowning slightly. "Sir," the young red head in the image said nonchalantly, "I've located the black witch cat charm." The red head smiled sadistically, held up one of its long thin hands, and poured what looked liked black dust onto the ground. "Unfortunately, three of our men failed to retrieve it," the red head said with mock sadness in her voice, before smiling sadistically again "but as you can see, I dealt with them."

"Good work, Miss Celosia" Blain said, returning the red head's sadistic smile with one of his own, "Your father would have been proud of you."

"Thank you, sir" the red head said nonchalantly, "What are my instructions, now?"

"Why, get the black witch cat charm," Blain answered, smiling evilly once more, "and kill everyone in that vile vermin burial ground."

* * *

Calder stared at the girl in front of him. She was very beautiful and had the same poise any shapeshifter would have. Her long rusty brown hair flew about her head slightly with the breeze, gently kissing the milky soft skin of her face, and her eyes burned with fierce brightness, making the warm coffee colour of them seem extremely inviting. In all, she looked like a warrior princess from times of old. Too bad she's working for the other side, he thought to himself.

He was so busy staring at the girl that he didn't notice her right hand slowly reaching out to grab the ring from him until the last second. "Ah! Ah! Ah!" he started to say, as he grabbed her wrist, "You can't just..." He was going to say "You can't just take the ring like that", but had been stopped by the feeling of sparks running up and down his arm, and all through him.

Now everything was different, but somehow it felt right to him. A tranquil blue haze danced in front of Calder's eyes, making him feel like he wanted it to be there forever. Soon the blue haze cleared up a bit and he found himself standing near a wooden pier jutting out onto the most beautiful lake he'd seen in his whole life.

Then he started to hear the yelping. A group of young boys were gathered round what seemed to be a small creature of some sort, kicking it over and over again, ignoring its cries of pain. Although Calder was famed for being one of the Night World's deadly assassins, he couldn't stand to see the poor creature suffering any longer. But before he could go and give the boys a piece of his mind, two small figures ran past.

When he looked closer, Calder noticed the two small figures were actually two small girls. Both of them had light brown hair and looked about 6 or 7 years old. They both wore matching short dungarees, pale pink t-shirts, and white and pink trainers. In fact, they looked so identical they could've been twins. The only thing that wasn't identical about them was that one had slightly redder hair and wore her hair in messy plaits, while the other had normal light goldy brown hair and wore it tied back in a perfect little pony tail that bounced about the top of her small head as she ran.

Suddenly Pigtails jumped on one of the unsuspecting boys and started punching and kicking him and pulling out chunks of his hair at the same time. "LET IT GO!" she yelled, loud enough to be heard 5 miles away, "LET IT GO! LET IT GO! LET IT GO!" At the same time, Ponytail went up to one of the other boys and began twisting his arm. "Ah! Ah! Ah!" the boy gasped in pain, "Let go of my arm, you little freak!!!"

"Could someone get this monster child of me!?!" yelled the boy who Pigtails was attacking, "C'mon guys, they're just little gir...AAAAAH!!!... little girls!"

But instead of doing anything to help their two friends, the other boys began to back away. "No way, man!" said one of the boys, worry beginning to show on his face, "Them girls aren't human!"

"Yeah," another boy agreed, "My da was out drinking wiv his friends, an he saw them girls' da change into a hawk!!!"

"Your da was probably drunk out of his mind, Billy!" muttered the boy who Ponytail had attacked, as he rubbed his arm, "It's obvious that he would see some guy turn into a hawk, wiv all that alcohol in his head!"

But instead of reacting to the insult thrown at him, Billy ran off the other direction, along with the other boys who'd been backing away from the twin's attack. "HEY!" yelled Pigtails' victim, "COME BACK HERE! WHAT ARE YA GUYS YELLA?!" Then he turned to the other boy who was still there.

"Hey Abe," he said to the other boy, wincing as Pigtails pulled another chunk of his hair, "You'll help me, won't ya?" Before he could answer, the other boy doubled over in pain, as Ponytail elbowed him hard in the stomach.

"Sorry man," he gasped, as he began to back away, as well, "but I'm not staying here, to be attacked by this kid, freak or no freak." And with that he ran

off after the others.

Now there was only one boy left. "Are you going to quietly?" said Ponytail, her voice slightly squeaky, but strangely bossy at the same time, "Or do we have to show you what it feels like being kicked stupid, like you an yer friends were doing to that small creature?"

"You twins, don't scare me" the boy said arrogantly, "You're just a pair of squeaky voiced freaks wiv bunches!" Then without warning, Pigtails pulled another chunk of the boy's hair, making him yell in pain.

"My sister asked you to go quietly." she said, her small voice full of quiet anger, "An don't call us freaks or we'll set the real monsters on you!"

The boy looked at both of the girls, worry showing on his face. To Calder, he looked like he thought he could take on both of the little girls, but at the same time was wondering what Pigtails had meant by the real monsters. "Fine," the boy said, throwing Pigtails off his back, "I'm leaving. You freaks can have the mutt. Yas belong to each other." And with that, he stormed off after the rest of his friends.

"Enjoying yer little snoop around my mind?"

Calder looked to his right and saw the young shape shifter princess staring at him. Even against the beauty of the surrounding she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. "That's you and your sister," he said to her, nodding in the direction of the two little girls who were now mothering the little creature they'd just rescued, "isn't it?"

"Yeah Einstein," the girl replied, "that's me, my sister, and a puppy we both rescued. Are you going to ask me anymore dumb questions, or are you going to tell me what the heck yer doing in my mind?"

Calder looked back at the twins mothering the small animal, near the pier. Sure enough the small creature they were cooing and mothering over was a small German Shepherd puppy with odd looking ears. One of the puppy's ears was pricked up, while the other ear flopped down and was slightly ragged at the edge, but it didn't take away the fact the little squirt was cuter than a puppy on a soppy greetings card.

"Um, excuse me," the young shape shifter princess said crossly, interrupting Calder's thoughts, "I just asked you a question, idiot! What are you doing in my mind?"

Instead of reacting to being insulted, Calder just stared at the girl like she was strange. "It's simple." he laughed, ignoring the girl's death stares directed straight at him, "We're soulmates."


	13. Black Catkin Part 13

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 13**

"Can anyone figure out how we're going to get out of here?"

Pandie looked at Arizan and shrugged her shoulders. "I've never been in this part of the grave yard, sorry." she sighed as she looked around her, "If I did, we wouldn't be walking around in circles like a bunch of lost tourists."

"Don't worry about it, Pandz" Arizan said, as she spotted a direction they hadn't taken, "Hey, how about that way? I don't think we've taken that..." Before she could finish what she was saying, a great big bulky bear shifter jumped right in front of the three girls and Casey who was still in her dog form.

"Sorry to break up the little getaway," he snarled as his big muscles began to bunch up, "but you ladies aren't going anywhere."

"Oh look," Arizan muttered sarcastically to the others in a sing song voice, "it's Dorkules! Strongest jerk alive!"

Smiling nastily at Arizan, the bear shifter walked up to her and began speaking to her in a mock sweet voice, or at least it was near enough to a sweet voice as the big dozebrain could manage. "Well, well," he said, still smiling nastily as he towered over Arizan, "if it isn't Little Miss Freakhead."

"Excuse me?" Arizan laughed, despite the fact the bear shifter was over a foot taller than her, "Freakhead? I happen to like my hair, thank you! It gives me character. Maybe if you stopped being such a jerk, then your character would improve a bit." Then a shocked look went across her face for a brief second, before changing to a look of mock sympathy. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, as she lightly whacked him on the arm, "I forgot! You don't have any character."

Pandie looked at Arizan curiously. _Do you know this guy? _she asked her, making sure no one else could hear the mental conversation, apart from Casey and Liedryn.

_'Fraid so _came Arizan's reply, _His name's Orson Madigan, Orry for short, and he's a right pain up the butt. We've met him loads of times at parties that our boss Thierry throws for the Night World people, so they don't suspect he's really one of the leaders of our group._

"Excuse me," snarled the bear shifter, interrupting the mental conversation, "but you girls are supposed to be running screaming before I rip your guts out and trail them around this burial ground by now." Then he looked over at Liedryn who was standing with her hands on her hips, golden brown hair tumbling perfectly around her shoulders and to her waist, except for the two small face framing plaits her twin had been complaining about; her perfect deep rose pink lips formed into a small scowl. "Of course, I will make the exception of Miss Drache here" he said leering at the tall golden-brown haired warrior-like girl, "How about you and me getting together, babe?"

Liedryn gave Orson another scowl, and then began to smile seductively. "That sounds like a great idea, Orry" she purred, twirling a strand of her golden brown hair casually between her fingers, "Just you and me, doing some killer fighting." She began slinking towards him. "Feeling the rush," she continued, getting closer to him, "knowing the prey has been beaten." Soon she was so close, she was staring him right in the face. "And do you know what we could do next?" she said throatily, as the big bear shifter began breathing heavily while he leered at something other than her face, "Hmmm, Orry?" Slowly, she put arm on his left shoulder, and leaned towards his right ear, her feet slightly on tip toe, because even though she was tall herself, he was taller. "We could play my favourite game." she whispered sweetly in the bear shifter's ear "'Let's Watch The Big Dumb Bear Shifter Double Over In Pain'" With that, she threw her right fist hard into Orson's stomach and stepped back as he naturally 'doubled over in pain'. "Get this straight, Madigan" Liedryn spoke icily, at the now very winded bear shifter, "I don't date pervs." "Oh, and by the way," she added sweetly, "don't call me babe, or I'll aim my fist lower next time."

Pandie looked amusedly over at Arizan, who was looking back with a similar amused look on her face. _I almost forgot to mention_, her mind voice laughed, _he's got this big obsession with Liedryn._

_What? _Pandie mind laughed back, _He likes being her living punch bag? _Both girls smiled and did their best to stifle any little giggles that might've escaped.

The bear shifter, though, didn't seem to share their amusement. "I don't see what's so funny," he growled as he changed shape, "because the only smiles you'll be wearing will be the three inch long grins I'll cut through your bodies before I feast on your insides."

Immediately all four girls leapt into action. Both Pandie and Arizan had witch fire between their cupped hands, and Liedryn looked ready to wallop the bear shifter, again, this time with her foot. Even Casey grouched near him, growling despite the fact she could've been swatted like a bug. _Want me to give him the pee treatment? _she asked Pandie in mind speak.

_Hmmm, it sounds promising, _Pandie said thoughtfully in reply, _but I don't think it would be a good idea. We need you for any of the non-shifters we come across, Casey._

Still growling, Casey moved back slightly from the bear shifter so that she was still close enough to attack him, but not so close to being in danger. _Okay, _she sighed, _but if he comes my way I'm gonna bite off that big fat hairy bear leg of his, whether he likes it or not._

By now the bear shifter had fully changed and was on his hind legs, growling so deeply that the ground shook. "Oh come on, Orry," Arizan said smiling as she let the witch fire between her hands dance about like it had a life of its own, "you can do better than that. I've heard Chihuahuas growl louder than that."

_You're scared of him_, Pandie asked her casually in mind speak, never taking her own eyes off the bear, _aren't you?_

_Oh yeah _came Arizan's reply, _I'm about ready to pee myself now. But I'm not letting Fuzz Face here know that._

*****************

Murphy stared at the young vampire for what seemed like forever. "Soulmates?" she said finally, her voice full of disgust, "What makes you think I'd want to be soulmates with the likes of you?" Liar liar, bum's on fire, the little voice in her head sang. Murphy ignored it and continued to speak. "This is some kind of vampire mind trick, isn't it?" she asked him, trying to ignore the feeling of wanting to lose herself in the pale blue depths of his eyes, "You did this so I would become all weak like any good little victim of yours and let you get away with the ring."

The vampire looked at her like she was insane for a few seconds and then spoke. "Do you really think this is a mind trick?" he said, his eyes boring straight into hers, "I don't even care about the stupid ring anymore. If I wanted to use a mind trick, you wouldn't even have the will to think and speak on your own right now. Just face it. You and I are soulmates."

"No"

"I'll prove it to you, then."

Before Murphy had a chance to react, he was right in front of her, his face an inch away from her own. Then he grabbed her hands with his own strong hands. "Hey!" Murphy said, ignoring the tingles that were now running up and down her arms at a faster rate than before, "Let me go, or I'll..." But she didn't have a chance to finish what she was saying, for he suddenly kissed her.

At first she struggled to let go, but soon she found herself giving into to it. It wasn't like any kiss she'd be given before. Anytime she'd been kissed was when she played kiss chase when she was 10. The only other experience she'd had with kissing other than that was when a young werewolf named Barrie Lupus felt it was his duty to ram his tongue down her throat. Of course, now he had a scar above his right eyebrow and a slight limp in his left leg from when Murphy had wiped the floor with him straight afterwards. But this kiss was so much different to some pervy little werewolf slobbering over her face and giving her unwanted tonsil inspection with his tongue.

Instead it was so heart stopping, yet so tender at the same time. She felt as if she was lost in a beautiful dream and never wanted to wake up. His lips felt like soft cool silk against her own, and his strong hands held hers firmly, but gently at the same time, like he never wanted to let her go.

Again she felt herself fall deeper into his mind. Somehow she knew the same thing was happening to him. _See. _his voice said gently, _We were meant to be like this. We are two halves of one whole._

_You really know how to flatter a lady _laughed Murphy, her voice full of kind amusement, _I've never been called a half before. Not unless you count me being a twin, but I think that's totally a different thing altogether._ As soon as she said this, she felt soft musical laughter in her head.

_You have such a beautiful voice _he sighed, _Even though what you just said didn't make an ounce of sense, I could listen to you speak forever._

When Murphy looked at him, with a look of slight hurt, he laughed again. _I'm sorry _he said, pulling her close and wrapping his arms around her, _I meant that as a compliment. I didn't mean for it to sound rude._

_That's okay _Murphy sighed as she put her arms around his waist and rested her head under his chin, _I probably needed to be told I talk gibberish from time to time, soon anyway._

As they held each other, their minds merged together, causing every single detail in them to be read. _Your name's Naida? _the vampire asked her, his mind voice sounding slightly surprised, _That was the name of the water nymph in Greek Mythology, wasn't it? I thought I heard your friends call you Murphy, though._

_My grandmother was a dolphin_ Murphy answered him, _I'm named after her, for some strange reason. Murphy was the name me and my sister gave the puppy we rescued. He loved swimming, and after he saved me from almost drowning one time, I used to love to go swimming with him. In fact I spent so much time with him, my cousin nicknamed me Murphy II. It shortened to Murphy, after the original Murphy died._

_How did he die? _he asked her gently.

_He got really bad pneumonia one time _she said, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to escape, _In fact, he was so ill, he never really recovered properly. He had to be put down, in the end._

The vampire was silent for a few minutes as he held her close to him. _You took on his form, though, _he asked her eventually, _didn't you?_

_Yeah _said Murphy, her voice slightly surprised, _How did you know?_

_Simple_ the young vampire holding her said, his blue eyes staring at her immensely, _It's the soulmate link. It's revealing everything in our minds to the both of us._

Slowly Murphy realised that all their thoughts and memories were playing in front of their eyes like little mini movies. They saw the time Murphy fell into the lake at her home and almost drowned before being rescued by the original Murphy. They saw the vampire as a small boy, sitting on his mother's lap as she sang him to sleep.

They saw when Murphy eventually learnt to swim, and began spending time with the young German Sheperd she and her twin had rescued thus prompting her cousin to nickname her after the water loving hound.

They saw the vampire learn to fight, taught by his father. Then they saw Murphy's biggest secret.

_You don't have to see this. _Murphy said hastily.

_Why?_

_Because I..._

_Please, let me see _he prompted gently, _I'm your soulmate. I won't think any less of you_

Eventually Murphy sighed and let him see the rest of the memory. They watched as a younger Murphy witnessed her father and mother's deaths at the hands of a Night World assassin. Both of them were shot through the heart with a silver bolt. After that Murphy and her twin had promised each other they'd do everything together, including choosing their animal forms. Of course, before the original Murphy had died, she had broken this promise by taking on his form without telling her twin about it.

_You broke a promise to your sister._

It wasn't a question, it was a statement. _Yes _Murphy said solemnly, _I suppose you're going to think I can't be trusted, now_

_No came _his reply, _I think what you did was very honourable. After all you said yourself the original Murphy saved your life. You were just repaying him by letting his form live on through you._

_But I broke a promise to my sister _Murphy said quietly, _She probably hates me now._

_I'm sure she'd understand _was the young vampire's gentle reply.

_Thanks_

For a few moments they held each other in their own little world made up of their joined minds. Eventually Murphy looked at her soulmate and said _What about you?_

_Huh? _he answered her, looking a bit startled, _What do you mean?_

_I mean, what's your big secret? _she asked playfully, _C'mon, I've shown you mine._

_My secret's too dangerous for you to see _he said solemnly, _It could get you into a lot of danger._

_Please_

_No_

_Why?_

_I already told you..._

But before he could finish, the memory was already revealing itself in front of their eyes. The vampire began to look very worried. _You can't see this _he said, trying to hide Murphy from the scene unfolding itself in front of them. It was too late, though. Murphy began to see everything that was happening.

The young vampire was sitting on a chair, wearing only black jeans, and a tight navy blue tank which showed off his perfectly lithe muscled arms. Beside him a scrawny bearded man was working a tattoo onto the upper part of his left arm, using a very sharp looking needle. When she looked closer, Murphy got the shock of her life.

The tattoo being etched into the young vampire's arm was that of black dagger. It was the sign of the Dark Soldiers, a group made up of the Night World's deadliest assassins. Murphy had seen that sign before on the hand of the man who killed her parents.

_You're one of them _Murphy said quietly, her voice full of anger, _And I let you see my mind _With that, she broke the link. She didn't care that he wasn't the one who had killed her parents, or that he was her soulmate. He was one of the Dark Soldiers. They were her sworn enemies. Although the Dark One (along with the Night World) was Daybreak's current enemy, Murphy had grown to hate the Dark Soldiers for what one of their kind did to her and her family.

Murphy pulled herself away from the young vampire and got up. Strange how she had been standing up before and had ended up sprawled on the ground in the clutches of the enemy. Too upset to change, she began to run back to the cemetery.

"Wait!"

"Leave me alone!"

"But I love you!"

"Hah!" Murphy said, despite the fact she wanted to run back and tell him she loved him too, "Why should I care?! You really thought you could fool me into giving into you?!"

"No" he said, beginning to sound very hurt, "It wasn't like that. I can't control the soulmate link. No one can."

"Save it for someone who cares"

"But..."

"I don't love you."

"That's not true."

"Are you listening to me?!" Murphy yelled, even though she knew she was about lie to herself more than to her soulmate, "I don't love you!!! I HATE YOU!!" The look on his face almost broke her heart. He truly looked hurt by what she had said. Don't fall for it, she scolded herself, He's just trying to trick you, again. Ignoring his pleas, she turned away from him again, and began to resume running back to the others at the cemetery.

"Naida!!"

"I already told you to leave me alo..."

Before she could finish, Murphy felt hard thud of a baton striking the back of her head. The baton wasn't silver, but the blow from it was strong enough to knock her out. As she slowly fell into unconsciousness, and felt herself being dragged away, a strange thought entered her mind. That's weird, she thought absently mindedly to herself, as she stared briefly at the attacker's hand, I thought his tattoo was on his upper arm. And that was her last thought before she eventually passed out.


	14. Black Catkin Part 14

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 14**

*ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!*

"Hey, I was only kidding about the Chihuahua thing!"

*GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*

"Um, Casey, I don't think you should..."

*GRRRRR...*

*RRRRROOOOOAAARRR!!!!*

*yelp*

"CASEY!!!"

Hadrian quickly followed the sounds of the fight, checking to make sure he had the special dagger that Daybreak had given him safely tucked into its sheath. Since sneaking into the cemetery, he'd been wandering around looking for the others, whilst dodging several flames that jumped up at him. Once the fire had begun to die down Hadrian had been able to detect Arizan, Liedryn and Pandie's voices, not far off from where he had been.

As he got closer to the ruckus that was going on, Hadrian noticed that the enemy the girls were fighting was a large grizzly bear. No doubt, it's a bear shifter, he thought sardonically to himself as he watched the bear tear a big thick branch of a nearby tree and began swinging it at Arizan, Normal bears don't attack like that.

"Sorry Orry," Arizan said smiling mischievously, before she did a perfect back-flip over the branch and continued to speak, "but I'm not falling for that ol' 'Swing, swing, knock 'em flat' deal. You'll have to try harder if ya want to get me."

Hadrian wasn't surprised at the way Arizan had handled the situation, since she had a very feisty attitude when it came to fighting. The one thing that did surprise him, though, was the fact she'd just performed an almost impossible back-flip over a large branch that had been almost level with her neck. I didn't know she could do that!! he thought puzzled to himself. Even Arizan herself looked slightly puzzled by it too for a few seconds.

Shaking his head, Hadrian continued to move quickly and silently towards the small battle. Although several kicks, punches, and blasts of witch-fire were being throw at the bear shifter, he still didn't back down.

"Did this guy eat the Energizer Bunny for his lunch today?!" Arizan yelled to no one in particular, as she threw another blast of witch-fire, "'Cause I swear he's not even flinching, even though we've probably burned off half his fur!?!"

"Rizzo, don't you know it's rude to talk about someone like they're not even there," Liedryn said casually as she threw a punch at the bear's huge jaw, "even if they are the biggest perv on the planet... Aaaaarrrgghh!!! Damn."

Of course the bear didn't take this too well, for he had bashed Liedryn's fist away before she could hit him. Hadrian only knew one bear shape shifter that could possibly fit Liedryn's description of the biggest perv in the world. His name was Orson Madigan, and he had a reputation for trying it on with several or more of the girls, including Liedryn at Lord Thierry's parties. Even when they complained about him, Orson always acted like nothing had happened.

For a moment Liedryn stared at her hand. Then she looked up at the bear, an angry look on her face. "You broke my nail!" she said, her voice dangerously calm, "That's it! No more Miss Nice Drache!" With that, she pulled out a small slightly thick cylindrical object about the length of her hand, from a small holster on the shiny black intricately designed belt she was wearing around her waist, and flicked her wrist sideways. In an instant, the object in Liedryn's hand became an impressive looking silver fighting staff, almost as long as she was tall.

Uh oh! Hadrian thought slightly worried to himself, It looks like this fight is going to get major. I'd better hurry up and go help them. But when he was about a foot away from the fight, he saw a sinister looking guy aiming a very dangerous looking crossbow towards it. The worse thing was, though, the guy was aiming the crossbow at Pandie.

Why am I feeling this worried about a girl I've just met? Hadrian thought puzzled to himself, That stuff only happens in fairy tales and really lame soap operas. He didn't have another chance to think about it, though, for suddenly the sound of a crossbow clip being released was heard.

"LOOK OUT!!"

Then, without thinking, Hadrian dove straight for Pandie, pushing her to the ground as an iron bolt whizzed past their heads and struck a nearby tree with a loud thunk. "Hey!" Pandie began to say as Hadrian helped her get up, "Didn't anyone teach ya, it's rude to pu..." Whatever she was going to say, had been completely forgotten, for now she was standing there, holding Hadrian's hand, the look on her face mirroring his own look of curious fascination. In her eyes, Hadrian was a handsome stranger (the kind most girls only dreamed about meeting), with teal coloured eyes, short messy brown-black hair, and a mischievous looking mouth that would easily make any girl melt.

That's strange, Hadrian thought to himself, Most girls just see me as some boring nerd, who's only good enough if they need help with their maths algebra homework. I'm hardly handsome stranger material.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

"Who are you?" Pandie asked him, a look of awe on her face.

_Yo, guys, I kinda need a li'l help here!!_

"Who are you??" Hadrian replied, asking Pandie the same question she'd just asked him.

_Oh good grief!!_

Suddenly a slightly frustrated Arizan interrupted their little trance. "She's Pandie," she said impatiently, her voice rising slightly with each word, "you're Hadrian, and I'm dead if someone doesn't make Fur Butt here release his death grip on me now!!"

Now that he could think clearly again, Hadrian saw what his sister was talking about. Somehow during the distraction of the crossbow being fired, Orson had taken the chance to grab Arizan with one great big furry paw, and was now holding her four feet off the ground. Whoever had fired the crossbow had turned and ran.

Before anyone could react, Orson changed into his half 'n' half form and began to speak in a slightly growling voice. "Oh dear, look what has just happened," he said sarcastically, "I've got one of your pathetic little group." Out of the corner of his eye, Hadrian noticed Liedryn silently move towards the bear shifter, holding the silver fighting staff carefully in her hands, ready to strike. "One more move Miss Drache," Orson began to say casually, "and I swear I'll break the Little Freakhead's neck."

Hadrian glared at the bear shifter, the encounter with Pandie, lingering in the back of his mind. "What do you want, Orson?" he said, doing his best to keep his voice calm, "Surely you didn't come all the way to a small town in the middle of nowhere, to attack my sister?" Orson laughed loudly, causing the ground shake slightly.

"I'm not after your sister, Taylor" he began to say, before turning and nodding at Pandie, "My orders are to retrieve the witch-cat charm, from her. My boss doesn't care if I let her live or not, so long as the charm is handed over. So I'm guessing as soon as I've dealt with your sister here, I'll take the witch-cat charm from Miss Katteken and just kill her."

"Excuse me?!" Arizan started to say angrily, "What do you mean you'll deal with me, Smartass?! I didn't come all the way out here to the middle of nowhere to be killed by you!! And if you even think of killing my brother's soulma.... Pandie, I'll use you for witch fire target practice. Now let me go, before I fry your head from the inside out." Instead of acting threatened by this sudden outburst, Orson began to laugh again, and tightened his grip around Arizan's neck.

"Try any of your little tricks, Freakhead," he said calmly, ignoring Arizan's small gasps for air, "and I'll..."

Suddenly his eyes rolled, and the huge bear shifter crumpled to the ground, dropping Arizan roughly in the process. At first, Hadrian was rather puzzled as to why the huge bear shifter had just collapsed without any warning. But he soon realised what had happened, when Quinn walked into view. "Owwww" Arizan said, rubbing her rear end as she got up, "Thanks a lot Quinn. Way to make me land on my butt."

"Sorry Riz," the black haired made vampire said apologetically, "but Madigan's constant 'I'm a big scary bear shifter and I'm going to rip off your head' speech was starting to get on my nerves." "Besides," he continued, once he had everyone's attention, "Rashel asked me to get you guys. We've found Jasper's grave, and let me just say that Rashel discovered some rather interesting writing on the statue placed in front of the headstone."


	15. Black Catkin Part 15

Part 15  
  
Calder glared at the dark cloaked figure stooped over his soulmate. As if sensing this, the dark figure turned and faced him. "Now, now, what's that look for?" the dark figure asked mockingly, pulling back a hood to reveal a guy with messy jet black hair and cruel obsidian black eyes, "I was only saving you from her."   
  
"Excuse me!" Calder replied, trying to keep down the anger that was building up inside him, "I did not need saved. Did you arrive here with your eyes closed, Draquis? She was running away!?!"  
  
Draquis shook his head and smiled evilly. "Ah Calder, you really are such a fool" he said, looking at Calder like he was talking to a silly little child, "If you let this lovely lady here, get away, she would run straight to her fellow Daybreak assailants and snitch to them that you've got the black witch cat ring."   
  
"Not unless I wipe her memory of me."  
  
Deep laughter filled Draquis' lungs. "Calder, Calder, Calder" he sighed, amusement sounding in his voice, "I really don't know why you joined the Dark Soldiers in the first place. You're too much of an idealist. Now if it were up to me, your lady friend here would be killed instantly."   
  
"It's not up to you, Draquis" Calder answered him tersely, "Blain put me in charge of this mission, not you. And I say the girl lives. Anyway, after I wipe her memory of me, she won't be able to tell her friends what happened to the black witch cat ring, will she?"  
  
For what seemed like forever, Draquis said nothing. "Just make sure you do it, properly" he said eventually, a slight sneer on his face, "Blain doesn't want anything ruining his plans." "And by the way Calder," he added threateningly, mock niceness sounding in his voice, "Blain says if you don't bring back the ring, he'll kill you." With that, he vanished into thin air.  
  
* Stupid black wing * Calder thought to himself, as he knelt done beside his soulmate, * Thinks because he's one of Blain's dragon elite, and has the power to teleport anywhere he wishes, he's better than the rest of us non dragon dark soldiers. * Beside him, the young shifter princess stirred.   
  
"Mmmm, why does my head feel like I've been head butting it against a brick wall?" she groaned, rubbing her head as she sat up. When she looked at Calder, though, sudden realization filled her eyes.   
  
"Oh Calder," she said tearfully, throwing herself into his arms, "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have reacting the way I did. It's not your fault my mother and father were killed, just because you're a dark soldier." Then she looked at him, her beautiful coffee coloured eyes staring deep into his. "Calder" she said, her face only inches from his, "Please forgive me."   
  
Calder shook his head. "No" he answered her gently, "Forgive me" With that, he kissed her deeply, holding her close to him, feeling the sparks begin to flare up between them. "Forget everything about me." he said, his lips never moving away from hers, "Forget everything that happened in this clearing. Forget and..."   
  
He held her closer to him for one last time, his heart beginning to break. Why did this have to happen to him? Whose cruel trick was this? Other people had found their soulmates, and had gone on to live happily ever after. Why did he have to be the only guy in the whole world who had to give up his soulmate? * Because if you don't, * he thought bitterly to himself, * Blain will have her killed *   
  
"Hmmm" the young shifter princess sighed against his lips, "Don't let me go." Calder felt his heart break further.   
  
"I love you Naida Drache" he whispered, his lips still not moving from hers. Then he continued what he had started. * Sleep * he said gently and simply into her mind. Then he felt her slump gently in his arms.  
  
Lifting her up, Calder began to carry his soulmate to a nearby tree. Laying her down under it, he kissed her softly on her forehead. "Sleep well, Princess" he whispered gently, brushing a stray lock of hair from her sleeping face. Then he pulled the ring off his middle finger on his right hand, and placed it on the middle finger of her right hand. The ring was white gold, and was set with amethysts and deep blue sapphires. It had once belonged to his mother, the only other woman he had ever loved. Then he got up and began to walk away, not once looking back. 


	16. Black Catkin Part 16

Part 16  
  
"That's a strange looking statue!"  
  
"The guy must've liked cats."  
  
"You would think that Rashel, being a cat lover yourself."  
  
"Maybe we should ask Pandie since it's her dad's grave."  
  
"Don't you think that would be a bit upsetting for her, Li??"  
  
"Oh sure Rizzo, that's really smart coming from the girl who thinks the statue's strange"  
  
Pandie listened to the whispered conversation between Arizan, Liedryn, and Rashel. * All this over a statue? * she thought puzzled to herself, * You'd think they'd found the Holy Grail or something like that! * Beside her, Hadrian leaned close to her, causing shivers to run up and down her spine.   
  
"They get like this all the time" he whispered in her ear, "It's okay now, but sometimes it can turn into a full blown shouting matching."   
  
"What??" Pandie asked, as she looked over at the other three girls whispering by the grave, "Arizan, Rashel and Liedryn get like that??"   
  
"Oh no," Hadrian answered her, shaking his head, "just Arizan and Liedryn get like that. They're only quiet because Rashel's there. She's kind of like a referee between the two of them."   
  
Pandie smiled slightly at this comment. Then she realized Hadrian was staring at her again. "Is something wrong?" she asked him, a small frown on her face.   
  
"Huh?" Hadrian answered her, blinking as if he'd just come out of a trance, "Oh! I'm sorry. I wasn't really paying attention. Nothing's wrong, really? It's just that, well, I, um, er..."  
  
"Stop flirting with the poor girl, Hadrian," Rashel interrupted him, "and bring her over here."  
  
Pandie watched as Rashel's remark was met with a slightly blushing face. "I'm not flirting with her, Rashel" Hadrian said, fighting back the slight redness that was rising in his cheeks, "I'm talking to her, to make her feel at ease."   
  
"Awww, Shel," Arizan interrupted them, looking up from where she was sitting, "Can't ya see that Hadrian luuuuurves her, and is obviously trying to woo her with his unique knowledge of, er... really looooong boring books."   
  
Pandie found herself blushing, and quickly looked at Casey who was lying at her feet, still in her dog form, resting from the attack. * Don't look at me * Casey said to her in mind speak, as she looked up at Pandie, * You're the one with the handsome admirer, not me. All I'm worried about is if that stupid lummox of a bear shifter wakes up from the sleep Mr Quinn put him in. My head still hurts from hard he threw me back there! *  
  
Sighing Pandie walked over to where Arizan, Liedryn and Rashel were sitting by her father's grave. They were studying a statue of a small cat holding what looked like a moon between its front paws. On the front of the moon there was some strange writing engraved into it. Arizan seemed to be studying a bit, at that moment. "What does it say?" Liedryn asked no one in particular, folding her arms and leaning back.   
  
"Hmmm," Arizan replied, squinting her eyes and staring closer at the writing, "It says...'Eat At Joes'" Beside them Rashel rolled her eyes, shook her head and gave Pandie a sideways glance that said 'See what I have to put up with?'.  
  
"I can read it for yas," Pandie said, looking at the three girls, "if ya like. It's not a problem, really."   
  
Rashel looked at her and frowned slightly. "Are you sure?" she asked, giving Pandie a concerned look, "It looks rather hard to read."   
  
"Nah, it's okay." Pandie answered Rashel, as she knelt done to read the writing, "It's a type of shifter writing. My dad taught me how to read it. He worked with shifters quite a bit, when he was alive." Then she looked at the writing and began to read it out.  
  
"The moon is my friend,  
It guides me through the darkest wild  
Its secrets it hides to the end  
When they're unlocked by my gifted child"  
  
"Sounds like your father was a bit of a poet" Quinn spoke up from where he was standing nearby, "But why would he have something like on his grave?" Pandie shrugged her shoulders. She didn't know why her dad had wanted the poem put on his grave. She had only been 11 years old when he had died, and she hadn't thought it was strange that one of his poems had been put on the statue in front of his grave. Now something in the last line had caught her attention. But she couldn't think anymore of it, as there was a sudden loud noise of a branch breaking and a small scream.  
  
"Faline!!!"  
  
**************************  
  
Ethne watched as the group of Daybreakers and their new friends chatted and joked beside Jasper Katteken's grave. * Fools * she thought bitterly to herself, * Idealistic fools. They think they're so great with their 'Let's all hold hands and be friends' attitude. *   
  
A small voice interrupted her thoughts. "You could be happy like them, again, Rikishia" the small girl sitting in the tree above Ethne said, in a very young but wise sounding voice, "All you have to do is turn your back on what you know is wrong."   
  
Ethne looked up and sneered at the little girl. "What right have you to say that, Hecate?" she snapped crossly, "You don't know what happened to me in my other life. So don't try to understand." "And by the way," she added, "I'm not called Rikishia anymore. My name's Ethne Celosia now."   
  
Turning she looked back at the group chatting by the grave. One of the girls, Jasper Katteken's older daughter, looked a lot like a teenage version of the little girl who was speaking as Hecate, except with hazel eyes and dark blonde hair instead of dirty blonde. "So Hecate," she said turning to the little girl up in the tree, an evil smile on her face, "you came back as Miss Katteken's little sister. That must be very hard for you, since you've got shifter blood running through you now."  
  
Suddenly a wind chimes voice filled Ethne's ears. "Leave her alone, Rikki" the voice said, the wind chimes sound of it dancing through Ethne's ears, "What species Hecate came back as, is none of your concern. There are other things that concern you, and they have nothing to do with the company you've been keeping with our brother Blain."   
  
Ethne glared as she looked around her. "So," she said, speaking to where the voice was coming from, "you decided to get off your high horse, and speak to someone outside of your so called dream world, Zaykaia Luna." Then Ethne frowned and pushed her wild fire red hair out of her eyes. "I may not be the Fire Dragon anymore, sister dearest," she said in a sneering voice, "but I still have the power to wield fire, since the species I came back as is a fire mage. You deserted me when you put yourself and our other 4 sisters into that stupid sleep, and left me on my own. Don't tell me how to live my life."   
  
"You know that isn't true." Zaykaia's voice answered her, "I kept you awake because you had the power to help the people of the Old Kingdom fight Blain and his dark dragons. But I was wrong for doing that. I should've known, Blain would warp your mind, fool you into joining his side, and make you betray your own people."  
  
Ethne ignored this speech, and began walking towards the small group by the grave. "Leave them alone, Ethne," the little girl who was Hecate spoke up, "Now is not your time."   
  
Ethne whirled round to look at Hecate, long wild flame, copper and blood red hair flying about her head. "Really Hecate?" she said nastily, a bright orange red ball of flame growing in her now upturned hand, "You're in a rather dangerous situation up there in that tree, you know. Maybe I should just make it my time." With that, she threw the ball of flame at the branch the little girl was sitting on, causing it to snap and send the little witch shifter screaming to the ground.  
  
"Faline!!!"  
  
* Oh goody * Ethne thought delighted to herself, a sinister smile on her face as she watched the older Katteken girl running towards her, followed by the rest of her stupid friends, * Now I can get the witch cat charm for Blain, and have some fun while I'm at it. * And with this thought, she slinked quietly back into the shadows, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting group as soon as they arrived. 


	17. Black Catkin Part 17

Part 17  
  
"Pandie! Wait up, will ya?"  
  
Arizan stopped briefly to take her breath, before starting to follow Pandie along with the others. * Damn, can she run fast or what? * Arizan thought to herself, when the rest of the group had caught up with Pandie, * It's as if someone had set fire to her tail. Wait a minute! Tail? * Looking down, Arizan could see a long dark blonde tail swishing back and forth underneath Pandie's skirt. "Um, Pandz?" she called, hoping to get Pandie's attention, "Er, you've got a, um..."   
  
Pandie turned around and looked at her. In her arms she was holding a small dirty blonde kitten. "I'm sorry guys" she apologised, gently stroking the little kitten in her arms, "I thought I heard Faline scream, but I realize it was just her kitten Muffy crying. I guess Fally just found her way out, and got to safety." Then she looked at Arizan.   
  
"Are you okay Riz?" Pandie said, frowning slightly as she looked at Arizan, "Something seems to be bothering you."   
  
"Um, yeah" Arizan replied, trying to grasp what on earth was going on, "Pandie do you realize you've got a tai..." But when Arizan looked down, to point out to Pandie, what she was talking, the tail was gone. "Actually it's nothing" she said quickly, "I tend to go a bit weird in these kinda situations." * That's it * Arizan thought determinedly to herself, * I am definitely cutting down on the soda pop and fizzy bon bons, from now on. All that sugar is just making my brain go doolally. *  
  
"Are you sure, sis?" Hadrian said, walking up to Arizan and placing a hand on her forehead, "You're starting to shiver a lot."   
  
"Excuse me!!" Arizan almost yelled in reply, turning to face her brother, "You'd be shivering too if you were standing in the middle of a graveyard in the middle of January, wearing only a t-shirt and hipster jeans!!!"   
  
"Hey! No one told you to wear them, Riz!" Liedryn said moodily, crossing her arms over her chest, "Honestly you're worse than Naida, sometimes!!"   
  
"Don't start taking yer annoyance at Murphy, out on me, Liedryn Maralle Drache, okay!!!" Arizan yelled back at the tall golden-brown haired shifter girl, "She disappeared, not me!! If you really have to, yell at her!!!"   
  
"Alright! That's it!" Rashel said loudly, making both girls go silent, and getting everyone's attention, "No more arguing, as of now! I don't care what it's about. If you guys really want to argue, save it for later. Right now, the most important thing we have to do is figure out what exactly that poem written on the statue on Pandie's father's grave meant."  
  
"Actually, you're wrong" a feminine voice said out of nowhere, "That's not the most important thing you have to do."  
  
Then to everyone's surprise, a young girl, about 5'7" tall, stepped out from behind an almost burnt out tree. Her flame, copper, and blood red hair was long and danced about her head like a blazing flame, and her ruby coloured eyes burned with dark fire. Her black jacket was unzipped to reveal a black vest top with a bright red, orange and yellow flame pattern around the bottom of it, and her black jeans were worn loose enough to reveal a small tattoo on the left side of her flat tummy. When Arizan looked closer at the tattoo, she knew this girl wasn't one of the good guys.   
  
"Allow me to introduce myself" the girl said, smiling evilly, "My name's Ethne Celosia, otherwise known as the Fire Flame. Let's just cut to the chase here, shall we? You lot are going to stand back, while I take the witch-cat charm off your dear little friend Miss Katteken, here." "Then," Ethne added mock sweetly, her smile turning cold and cruel, "you're all going to die." 


	18. Black Catkin Part 18

Part 18  
  
Pandie frowned as the new girl, Ethne, made her threats. She looked very dangerous, but somehow Pandie could sense a kind of link with her. When she looked closer at Ethne, Pandie could see a bright violet coloured glow shining around her. Then she looked down at herself. She too had that same violet coloured glow that shone around her, but hers was a lot fainter. Pandie had often asked her mother about this, but her mother had always quickly changed the subject, like she was trying to hide something. Before she could think anymore about it, a cruel voice made her look up.  
  
"OK Blondie!" Ethne said cruelly, a nasty sneer playing across her face as she spoke to Pandie, "Enough of the staring! Hand over the witch-cat charm!"   
  
Pandie looked at her, unfazed by the insult that had just been thrown at her. "I'm sorry," she said calmly, suddenly feeling braver than she had been before, "I can't do that. My father left me this charm when he died. It's the only thing I have, to remember him by. I'm not giving it away to you or anyone else."   
  
"EXCUSE ME?!?!" Ethne yelled angrily, her ruby coloured eyes glowing like burning embers, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!?!"  
  
"She just said she's not going to give you the charm" Arizan spoke up, causing Ethne to whirl around and glare at her, "Or are you on such a power trip, that you don't bother listening to what you've just been told?" "And by the way," she added, "we aren't holding the 'World Record for The Most Deafening Voice' here, kay? We can hear you perfectly clearly, without you almost permanently damaging our ear drums, thank you very much!" When Pandie looked at Arizan, she could see a violet glow shining around her, too, almost as bright as the violet glow around Ethne.   
  
"Oh shut up you little freak!" Ethne snapped suddenly, and threw a wave of powerful heat at Arizan, knocking her backwards into a nearby tree, "I wasn't talking to you!!"   
  
Pandie watching horrified as Arizan slowly slumped to the ground, clutching her stomach in pain. * You okay, Rizzo? * she sent to the blue haired girl in private mind-speak, * She threw you pretty hard with that power thing of hers. *   
  
* I'm fine * Arizan's mind voice grimaced back in reply, * Just gimme a few secs, and I'll kick her butt right into next week! Trust me! I will! Anyway, you should be worrying about yerself, though. * Then Pandie noticed the red-headed   
girl's hand was reaching towards her neck.   
  
"If you won't give me the witch-cat charm," Ethne sneered, as she reached across to grab the necklace off Pandie's neck, "I'll just have to take it myself." And before Pandie had a chance to react, the necklace was yanked off her neck; the chain biting painfully into the skin on the back of her neck, as it snapped. Ethne put the charm, along with the chain it was on, into her jacket pocket. "Don't even think about" she said, not looking up from she was doing, "I can see you with that knife, out of the corner of my eye." "Anyway," she added, looking up with a nonchalant smile, "it won't work on me. I'm neither a witch nor a vampire. And no, I'm not a shape shifter, either." Pandie looked to see who she was talking to, and saw Hadrian slowly and carefully placing a specially made dagger back into a sheath on the side of his jeans belt.  
  
But then the red-headed girl was doing some weird thing were she was waving her hands about above her head. Before Pandie knew it, huge flames almost as tall as the trees in the cemetery, had erupted out of nowhere, and were completely surrounding the whole group. The original fire had already slowly been dying down. Now this was much worse. It was almost like the fire in the little girl's house, in the vision Zaykaia had shown her, but a lot more real.   
  
"It was so nice meeting all of you" Ethne began saying with saccharine sweetness in her voice, as she waved her hand to open a gap through the wall of flames, "Thanks for letting me have the witch-cat charm, Miss Katteken. Have a nice death, everyone!" Then, before anyone could stop her, she stepped through the gap, and let it close behind her.  
  
"Well, that was just peachy!" Liedryn said sarcastically, putting her hands on her hips, "If we get out of this, remind me to teach that little cow a lesson she'll never forget."   
  
"You're not the only one" Hadrian spoke up, silent anger clear in his voice, "She hurt my sister, and she took Pandie's charm necklace without asking. No one should be allowed to do that."   
  
"Guys, I know this situation is bringing up a lot of tension from all of you," Rashel said, speaking up for the first time, since the encounter with Ethne, "but right now, we have to figure a way of getting out. Anyone got any ideas?"   
Everyone shook their heads, except for Arizan who still slumped against the tree.  
  
"Please!"  
  
"Oh no"  
  
"Please wake up!"  
  
"What?? What's wrong, Hadrian??"  
  
"Please Mummy!!"  
  
"It's Arizan!!"  
  
"What about Arizan???"  
  
"Please Mummy!!! Wake up!!! Pleeeeeeeeeease!?!"  
  
"She's going into another one of her freak out modes!"  
  
Pandie listened as Hadrian and Rashel spoke, and looked over at Arizan. The young girl was still slumped against the tree, but was now babbling in a panicking voice. For a moment, Pandie could swear Arizan sounded just like the little girl that she'd protected in the house fire, in the vision Zaykaia had brought her to. Then a thought came into her head. * Maybe if I sing the same song I sang to the little girl, * Pandie thought to herself, * it might help Arizan to calm down. * Then Pandie took a deep breath and began to sing.  
  
"Hush little angel, don't you cry  
I'm here to sing you a lullaby"  
  
Her voice rang sweetly across the air, as she sang the first two lines. Then a quiet but almost musical voice joined in, singing the words as if off by heart. It was Arizan.  
  
"Come take my hand, we'll fly away  
To a dream land, where you and I will play"  
  
Once they had both stopped singing, Pandie looked over at Arizan with an almost astonished look on her face. Arizan was now standing up straight, with her long wavy silver, royal blue, and pale blue hair, flying loosely about her head. She had a determined look on her face, but also seemed to be in a trance, at the same time. The strange thing though, was her eyes. They were glowing a bright violet colour, almost like the colour of an ultra violet light. It wasn't just her irises or her pupils that were glowing, though. The whole area of both Arizan's eyes was covered in this bright ultra violet colour.  
  
Suddenly Arizan started speaking in a strong authoritative voice. "I am Arizan Lianna Cyane Hashteher." Arizan spoke loudly, her voice young but strong sounding, still lost in her trance, "I am the Dragon Child. I will not hide anymore. MY TIME IS NOW!" With those last four words, Pandie watched amazed as Arizan looked straight up, threw her hands forward, and let out a blast of ultra violet coloured light. Soon the ultra violet light covered her whole vision, and Pandie could feel the power of the wall of flames that Ethne had conjured up, start to rapidly die down. As she watched the violet light destroy the flames surrounding them, a stray thought came into Pandie's head.   
  
* Arizan's the Dragon Child * 


	19. Black Catkin Part 19

Part 19  
  
Murphy's head throbbed as she woke up. The feeling of the ground moving wasn't helping much either. When she opened her eyes a bit, though, Murphy's realised it wasn't the ground that was moving, but a van. A van that she happened to be lying down in the back of.   
  
Groaning a little, she sat up and looked around her. As soon as she looked out the window, Murphy noticed it was now daylight, again. * That's strange * she thought to herself, * I could've sworn it was night time, before. * "How long have I been asleep?" Murphy then said, not realizing she was thinking out loud.   
  
"I don't know exactly how long you've been asleep for," a soft female voice to Murphy's side said, causing the young shifter princess to turn around in surprise, "but I do know that it's nearly 12 o'clock in the afternoon now."  
  
At first, when Murphy turned her head to look at who was talking, she thought she was staring at Iliana Harman, the Witch Child. But when she looked closer she noticed the girl sitting beside her had dark purple eyes instead of violet eyes, and was wearing a pair of trendy wire framed glasses, something she'd never seen Iliana wearing. And instead of having pale silvery blond hair, the girl's hair was pure white, like the colour of snow when the sun shines on it, and was tied back in a messy plait.  
  
The girl stared back at Murphy, frowned a little, and put down the book she'd been reading. "What are you staring at?" the girl asked in a strange almost English type accent, "Haven't you ever seen a mage, before?"  
  
"A what?"  
  
"A mage" the girl answered, talking to Murphy like she was talking to a mere child, "You know? An immortal spell caster? One of The Magi?..."   
  
"I don't think the kid's ever heard of The Magi" a voice said from the driver's seat, "Only first generation First House shifters knew about The Magi and the arcobaleno drago." Murphy turned to see who the other voice belonged to, and saw another girl sitting in the driver's seat, with her back to them. The girl had dark blue hair cut in to a bob, which was short in the back and long in the front. When Murphy saw the girl's reflection in the driver's mirror, she could see that the girl's hair was bright ruby red around her fringe and the hair framing her face. She couldn't tell what colour the other girl's eyes where, since at that moment, she was wearing a pair of dark ray ban style sunglasses.  
  
"So kid," the girl driving the van spoke up, "are you going to tell us who you are, and what on earth you where doing lying unconscious in the middle of a forest?"   
  
"My name's Naida Drache" Murphy answered her, ignoring the fact she'd been called a kid at least two times "People call me Murphy, though. I honestly haven't a clue why I was lying unconscious in the middle of a forest. By the way, how do you guys know I'm a First House shifter?"  
  
"Neem could sense your power signal" the white haired girl with the glasses spoke up, "She's an arcobaleno drago. They can sense those sort of things. Right Neem?" The girl driving the van nodded her head calmly. Murphy looked from the white haired girl to the girl driving the van, then back again.   
  
"Um, sorry for asking this," she said apologetically, "but, who are you guys?"  
  
The white haired girl laughed a little and took of her glasses. "My name's Tamni Orenda" she said, shaking Murphy's hand politely, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Murphy. The girl driving the van is Neem, by the way."   
  
The other girl smiled politely. "Neemika Keshet" she said, correcting the other girl, "Tamz just calls me Neem for short. It's an honour to meet an ancestor of the dragon princess. She was, and still is, a great friend of ours."   
  
Murphy looked puzzled at both Tamni and Neemika. "How can you guys possibly know the dragon princess?" she asked them both, puzzlement clear in her voice, "No one's heard or seen any sign of the dragon princess for more than a thousand years." The van stopped and Neemika turned to face Murphy. Then she lowered her sunglasses, so that Murphy could see her eyes. When she saw them, Murphy was amazed. Neemika had rainbow flecked eyes, just like Arizan. * I always thought Rizzo was the only one with eyes like that * she thought to herself. Then Neemika spoke up.   
  
"Don't be fooled by appearances, kiddo" she said, laughing slightly, "Me and Tamni are a lot older than we look. A lot lot older."  
  
********  
  
Arizan found herself standing in strange room with several strange looking doors surrounding her. * Okay, this is weird * she thought bewildered to herself, * First I get those scary flash backs again, and now I find myself here, playing 'Guess what's Behind the Strange Door.' * She looked at one of the doors and sighed. * Well, * she then thought to herself, walking up to the door and slowly pulling the handle * so long as it's not Barney the Dinosaur wearing a pink and purple tutu, insisting on polka dancing whilst singing that annoying 'I Love You, You Love Me' song, I might as well check it out. * With that, she pulled open the door.  
  
Inside, Arizan realized she was in another room. This time, there were no other doors to walk through. Instead, there were three figures placed in the middle of the room. Two of them were young boys about her age, and one was a beautiful Siberian husky, with white silver fur and silvery grey ears and paws. One of the boys had short messy sooty black hair with silver streaks, and strange looking eyes. The left one was a dark sapphire blue, and the right one was rainbow flecked, just like hers. The other boy looked slightly identical to the first boy, except his hair was slightly longer and was completely black, apart from a dark blue streak at the front. Unlike the other boy, both his eyes were dark sapphire blue.  
  
"Um, hi?" Arizan said cautiously, wondering when they'd see her, "Sorry for barging in on yas." There was complete silence. "Hey can you guys hear me?" Arizan asked, speaking a little louder, "I said hi."   
  
"They can't hear or see you, right now" a calm female voice spoke up, "Not unless you want them to."  
  
Surprised, Arizan turned around to see a strange and beautiful lady, she'd never seen before in her whole life. The lady was tall, with long white hair the colour of sun rays, with bright sunshine yellow hair framing her face. She had huge almond shaped eyes that were rainbow flecked just like Arizan's own eyes, and was wearing a long pale yellow sleeveless tunic that trailed all the way to her feet. On her head was a white gold circlet, with what looked like an oval shaped yellow topaz stone, set in the centre, resting in the middle of her forehead.  
  
"My name is Kalita" the lady said with a calm voice, answering Arizan's unasked question, "I am the Sun Dragon, and of the arcobaleno. My sister, the Traum Zauberin and the Moon Dragon created this dream enchantment." Then she pointed to the two boys and the silver husky. "They are your family" Kalita said calmly, turning to look at Arizan, "The ones you left behind."   
  
"I'm related to a dog!?" Arizan said puzzled, looking at the Siberian husky, before looking at Kalita again, "Um sorry to say this, but I already have a family."   
  
"These are your real family, Arizan" Kalita said calmly, indicating the two boys and the husky, "Your real brothers and your sister. Since you have revealed yourself as the Dragon Child, and unleashed your power as the Sun Dragon Guardian, this is a special gift for accepting your powers." "One thing, though" she added in a slightly warning voice, "You won't remember anything about this, when you wake up." Before Arizan could ask her what she was talking about, Kalita vanished into thin air.  
  
"Arizan?"  
  
Arizan turned to see the boy with the strange eyes looking at her, like she was someone he knew. Then he knelt down beside the husky and began speaking to it enthusiastically. "Hey Suki" the boy said, shaking the husky slightly, "Wake up and change will ya? Arizan's here." The husky lifted its head and looked at Arizan. For a brief moment Arizan thought she could see its eyes widen a little in surprise. Then it began to change shape. Before long, instead of Siberian husky, a short girl, slightly taller than Arizan, stood in its place. She had long wavy silver blue hair with lilac streaks, huge almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes, and was wearing a pale blue sleeveless silk top and a knee length light violet coloured suede skirt.  
  
Suddenly the girl ran up to Arizan and flung her arms around her, and began hugging her fiercely. "It's really you, Arizan." the girl said happily, as soon as she let Arizan go, "Oh I just knew my sister wasn't dead."   
  
"Hey! She's our sister too, you know, Suki" the boy with the black hair with the dark blue streak spoke up, before calmly walking up to Arizan and giving her a gentle hug, "It's great to see you again, little one."   
  
"Excuse me! But would you guys quit hogging all the hugs, please?" the other boy said, complaining slightly, "I'm allowed to hug my long lost little sister, too, ya know!" Then he walked up to Arizan and gave her a friendly hug, almost lifting her off the ground, since he was quite tall. "I'm glad to see you again, little sis" he said, smiling at Arizan as he put her back down on her feet, "Suki wouldn't stop blabbing on and on about you, ever since you disappeared. We couldn't get her to shut up at all, except when she was dozing and snoring her head off at night...Owww!!!"   
  
Arizan almost laughed as the girl reached up and hit the boy with the strange eyes across the back of his head. "I was so not like that, you dolt" she said, looking crossly up at the taller boy, "Even if I was, it was because I knew Arizan was still alive. And for your information, little bro, I don't snore!!"  
  
Arizan looked at the two boys and the girl. They were her real family, her brothers and her sister. She'd never remembered them before, but somehow she was remembering them, now. "Sukida? Loki? Syrius?" she said, looking at each of them, speaking their names as if she had remembered them all along, "You guys have changed. You were all munchkin sized the last time I saw yas."   
  
Sukida laughed and gave Arizan a warm and friendly hug. "We missed you too, little sis" she said happily, still hugging Arizan "We missed you too." 


	20. Black Catkin Part 20

Part 20  
  
Blain smiled evilly as his victim cowered in the part of the huge underground arena, he'd cornered her into. Or at least he would've smiled evilly, if he wasn't in dragon form at that moment. As a dragon, Blain was almost as tall as the Empire State Building, had a body as big as a jumbo jet, with huge 30 feet long by 20 feet wide wings that could easily blot out the light from the sun, huge black eyes that struck terror in anyone's heart if they looked directly into them, and eight huge horns made for ripping his victims apart. The victim in this case, was a small busty girl in a candy pink vest top and matching capri pants, with butterscotch coloured hair and big chocolate brown eyes wide with fear.   
  
Blain felt his huge mouth stretch into a wide sneering grin, revealing rows of teeth so sharp they'd put a T-rex's sharp teeth to shame. * Mmmm, you look good enough to eat * he sent to the girl's mind, his deep taunting mind voice making her quake with fear, * In fact, I think I'll do just that. * Upon saying this, Blain threw back his head and let out laughter so deep, so rumbling, so grating, that even one of the most fearless dragons in his elite dragon army, would've been cowering in fear if they had heard it.  
  
He was just about to lower his huge foreboding jaws to bite the snivelling little wench in two, when an annoying whiney weasel-like voice interrupted him. "Master, master!" the voice just behind Blain, said desperately, "There has been a shift in the balance of power! Your plan to kill the Dragon Child all those years ago, has failed!"   
  
Infuriated, Blain swung away from his trembling meal, and glared at the short plump looking man, a black mage to be exact, standing before him. * What do you mean by saying my plan to kill the Dragon Child, failed? * he hissed angrily in mind speak, * No one ever disagrees with me, do you understand? *  
  
"Yes master, but..."  
  
Angered that one of his many cronies was defying him, Blain grabbed the mage with the huge claws on his right front paw, and yanked him up to look him straight in the face. * But what? * he hissed, his patience slowly seeping away as he stared at the mage's ugly little face, * C'mon Black Mage Delano, spit it out! What proof have you that my plan to kill the Dragon Child failed? *   
  
"The Dragon Child's alive" Delano rasped as Blain's claws squeezed him tighter and tighter, "I was tracking the power sources coming from that Little Brook town, like you told me to, Master, and I sensed a great power appear amongst them, like a strong glowing ultra violet light." "But look at it this way, Master" the mage added quickly, obviously not wanting to suffer Blain's wrath, "At least, you can make sure she's killed properly this time."  
  
Blain turned his head away from the black mage, and thought for a bit. It was true that he would make sure the Dragon Child would die this time, but he had more important things to deal with first. Thinking this, he looked to see if his meal was still there. But the place was the young girl had been cowering in fear, was now empty. That whiney little black mage had let his meal escape. * I guess you're right, Black Mage Delano * he said in mock pleasant voice, turning his huge dragon head to look at the tubby little man, * I can and I will make sure the Dragon Child's killed this time. *  
  
"Does this mean I'll be greatly rewarded?"  
  
* Of course * Blain answered the stupid little mage's question, mockingly, * I wouldn't think of anything less. * And with that, he threw the plump ugly little black mage up into the air, caught him in his huge jaws as he dropped down, and swallowed him whole, all with speed so fast, the little worm had no chance to cry out for mercy. * Your reward, Black Mage Delano * Blain thought angrily to himself, * Replacing the meal of mine you let escape. No one ever defies me! NO ONE!! * 


	21. Black Catkin Part 21

Part 21  
  
Rashel looked around her. After Arizan's strange stunt at the graveyard, Pandie had told them the nearest place they would be safe, was a house belonging to a lady called Cornelia. Pandie hadn't mentioned what her last name was, though. Somehow, from looking at the decorations, furnishings and artefacts she had around her house, Rashel had a feeling that Cornelia would have a shape shifter surname.  
  
One artefact in particular caught her eye. From what Rashel could make out, it was a weapon of some sort. In fact it looked like some kind of decorative sword. The hilt was made of white gold, and was shaped in the form of a dragon, with the dragon's mouth itself open wide were the hilt met the blade, as if the blade flowed from the dragon's mouth like it was a blast of fire. To top it all off, the dragon's tail was decorated with dark coloured sapphires, with smaller dark sapphires on either side of the hilt, were the dragon's eyes were. As if the hilt itself was a work of art, the blade too was a masterpiece. It was curved and almost as long Rashel's arm, made of the same white gold as the hilt, with a small thin thread of silver running all the way to the tip, and intricate markings etched on either side. * It looks fascinating enough, * Rashel thought to herself, as she reached to touch the edge of the blade, * but is it affective as weapon. *  
  
"Um, I wouldn't touch that, if I were you."  
  
Rashel turned to see where the voice had come from, and saw what looked like a middle-aged woman with slightly greying black hair and dark brown eyes. "That's a dragon blade" the lady said calmly, as she walked up to Rashel, "It can cut through flesh and muscle like a knife through butter."   
  
"Thanks," Rashel muttered as she pulled her hand away from the blade, "but I can handle it, though. I've had plenty of experience with..." Rashel paused and found herself gaping at the lady's forehead. Just below the lady's hairline were three downy bumps. Immediately Rashel found herself reaching for the silver dagger she kept inside her boot. The lady seemed to notice this, and smiled apologetically.   
  
"I'm sorry," she said, wincing slightly, "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Cornelia Hashteher." Rashel's eyes narrowed.   
  
"You're a dark dragon." she said in a cold hushed voice.   
  
"That is correct" Cornelia sighed, her eyes looking strangely sad for a dark dragon, "But I'm nothing like most of my fellow dark dragons."   
  
"You're awake?" Rashel said coldly. Cornelia laughed serenely. "Yes, I suppose you could say that" she said, as she walked over to a couch covered with deep green velvet and sat down, "That's not the answer, though. I don't use my dark power, like a lot of other dark dragons." Rashel frowned slightly.   
  
"How does that make you different from them?" she asked in a puzzled voice, as she sat down on the edge of a nearby chair. Cornelia smiled warmly; a very rare thing for a dark dragon to do.   
  
"Miss Jordan" she said, calling Rashel by her formal name for the first time since she'd walked into the room, "When a dark dragon uses its dark power, its heart becomes clouded with evil, and becomes cold, cruel and ruthless. When I was awoken, the group who had woke me up tried to make me kill a whole town full of witches. Do you want to know what I did?" Rashel sighed and rested her head in her hand.   
"I guess you're going to tell me anyway" she said flatly. The dragoness nodded.   
"I killed them instead" she said smiling dangerously for a moment, and then looked sad, "All except for their leader. Somehow she managed to get away."  
  
"What do you do after that?"  
  
"I moved to this house."  
  
"And you've been living here for how long?"  
  
"Since 1976."  
  
Cornelia then laughed and shook her head in what looked like disbelief. "You sure ask a lot of questions, Miss Jordan" she said with a warm smile on her face.   
  
"I just like to be careful" Rashel answered her casually; "I'm not really one for instantly trusting someone I don't know a lot about."   
  
"That's understandable" Cornelia said with an understanding smile, "I never trusted too many strangers, when I was your age. Do you have anymore questions?"   
  
"Yes, I do, I suppose" Rashel sighed, "What do you really want with us?"   
  
The dark haired dragoness smiled and handed Rashel a piece of paper with something that looked like a prophecy written on it, then placed a small wooden box on the table in front of her. "I took the opportunity to translate one of the scrolls that you brought in with you," she said calmly, "and I've found it to be the ancient prophecy of the dragon guardians."   
  
* The what? * Rashel thought puzzled to herself, and began to read out loud what was on the piece of paper.  
  
"Power of the Sun Dragon to the lost dragon child  
Power of the Moon Dragon to the daughter of the cat and the sage  
Power of the Earth Dragon to the girl from the green wild  
Power of the Air Dragon to the little mage  
Power of the Fire Dragon to the dragoness reborn  
Power of the Water Dragon to the child from the sea  
All with the violet light are born  
So it will be  
So it shall be"  
  
Rashel frowned and looked at Cornelia. "Is this for real?" she asked, not sure if what she'd just read out was a real prophecy or just something made up.   
  
"I guessed you were going to ask that" Cornelia sighed, then opened up the small wooden box to reveal six jewelled pendants. Each pendant was shaped differently to the others. "These pendants were made to enhance the power of the Six Sister Dragons, when they were awake" Cornelia explained gently, "Now their purpose has been passed on to the dragon guardians. When each of the dragon guardians discovers their true power, one of these pendants will begin to glow." As soon as she said this, she lifted what looked like a small sun shaped pendant with a warm glowing yellow jewel in its centre, out of the box. "This pendant indicates that the Sun Dragon Guardian has discovered her true power." Cornelia said calmly as she placed the strange looking piece of jewellery on to the table, "I believe your young friend Arizan has the honour of that role." Then she took out another pendant from the box. This time the pendant didn't have any jewels, except for some small purple jewels around it circular rim. "This pendant belonged to the Moon Dragon" Cornelia explained, handing the pendant to Rashel to look at, "When the prophecy of the dragon guardians was first discovered, the two jewels that made up the crescent moon picture in the pendant, where taken out and hidden in two separate places where no one could find them."  
  
"Why would they want to do that?"  
  
"Miss Jordan" Cornelia said calmly, taking the pendant from Rashel's hand and placing it on the table beside the glowing sun shaped pendant, "It may not mention it in the prophecy, but the Moon Dragon Guardian is the link to finding all of the dragon guardians. Through her dreams, each of the dragon guardians' identities will become known. If this pendant were to become complete again, it could spell trouble. In the hands of the Moon Dragon Guardian, it would enhance her power, and give a better chance of finding the other dragon guardians. But in the wrong hands, it would give its owner extreme power, and enable them to search out and suck up every last drop of each of the dragon guardians' powers, making them almost indestructible."   
  
"Where are the two jewels that make up the crescent moon in the pendant, hidden?" Rashel asked calmly, although she knew this was exactly something to be calm about.   
  
"One of them is hidden in a deep underground cave, ten miles north from this town" Cornelia answered her.   
  
"And the other one?" Rashel asked. Cornelia looked at her with a wry smile.  
  
"It's in another world, in the past." 


	22. Black Catkin Part 22

Part 22  
  
~ Somewhere way back in the mists of time, in another world know only as The Old Kingdom to people of the present day ~  
  
"No, absolutely not! I won't allow it."  
  
Tamni watched as the five cloaked strangers standing at the front entrance of her family's house, reacted calmly to her father's sudden outburst. Although she couldn't see their faces under the big hoods of the cloaks they were all wearing, the young mage knew exactly who they were, even if her father didn't. It was one of the many talents she had as a mage.  
  
"Bü cìlb ah tye bgeüzü" one of the cloaked strangers said in a soft almost husky voice. To anyone normal person it would've just sounded like a bunch of strange words. But to someone who spoke Alakazhian, it was easily recognised as a calming spell. Translated it meant, "Be calm as the breeze."  
  
Lord Mage Orenda began to look a lot less tense than he had been since the strangers had arrived at his house, asking for his daughter's help in performing a very powerful spell. * Wow * Tamni thought to herself, casually brushing away a lock of snowy white hair that managed to fall in front of her dark purple eyes, * I'd love to learn how to do that spell. *  
  
"I apologise for my sudden outburst" Lord Mage Orenda sighed apologetically, a sad almost sorrowful look on his wise face, "It's just that my wife was killed doing a spell that was too powerful for her. I don't want to lose my little girl to the same fate." His eyes began to glisten. "I just miss her so much" the tall mage said, choking back tears, "My beautiful Gelasia." Tamni put her arm round her father to comfort him.  
  
"We understand your great sorrow at the loss of your wife, Lord Mage Orenda" the cloaked stranger said sympathetically, "The Magi Triad is not complete without her." Then the hood of the stranger's cloak dropped to reveal a tall peaceful looking woman with blue green eyes and long wavy mahogany coloured hair. Even though Tamni had never seen this woman before in her life, she didn't need to be told who she was. Serena Alvin was famous for not only being one of The Magi Triad, but also for being the great granddaughter of Hesperos Alvin, the mage who had created the arcobaleno drago.  
  
"My Lady Mage Alvin" Tamni's father gasped as he bowed politely to the powerful female mage leader, "I did not realise it was you. My greatest apologies."   
  
"You do not need to apologise, Lord Mage Orenda" Lady Mage Alvin said with a kind smile on her face, "We should have sent out a messenger to announce our arrival." Then the tall brown haired mage looked sad. "Unfortunately we didn't have time to send out a messenger" she went on in a solemn voice, "The Dark Dragon King's forces are getting stronger and stronger by the day. It is imperative that this spell is performed before it's too late."  
  
"But why must it be performed by my daughter?" Lord Mage Orenda said in a confused and puzzled voice, "Why can't you get some other mage to perform the spell?" Another hood was dropped, and a handsome middle aged man with blue purple eyes and snowy white hair tied back in a small ponytail, stared out from underneath it.   
  
"Cousin Phineas!" squealed Tamni, unable to contain the glee she had at seeing her mother's cousin again after so long, "I just knew it was you." The white haired man smiled kindly at the young mage, then looked at her father.   
  
"Stellan," said the white haired mage known better as Lord Mage Geneveine, calling Tamni's father by his given name, "Tamni is the only the mage among all the magi, even the magi council, who can successfully bring someone safely back from the future, using the time summoning spell. The fate of the people of our kingdom depends on it."  
  
"Alright" Lord Mage Orenda sighed, and then turned to look at his daughter, "But it's really up to Tamni, if she wants to perform the spell?" Tamni's eyes widened.   
  
"Oh father" she said in her soft polished accent, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm at thought being allowed to perform such a powerful spell, "it's been my dream to do something to help the people of our kingdom. Of course I want perform the spell." Her father laughed.   
  
"Then you'd better go get changed then" he said in an amused voice, "You can't very well go out to perform a powerful mage spell, in your house clothes, can you? Go on. I'll get Pennydrop all saddled up, while you get changed into your ritual clothes." Tamni nodded and dashed back up to her room.  
  
When she eventually came back down again, Tamni was dressed in a long violet sleeveless tunic with splits up the sides, a pair of black breeches and a pair of riding boots. Over that she wore a long dark hooded cloak, much similar to what the visitors were wearing. Her hair had small braids alternating through it; each braid had silver and white gold thread woven through, and on top of her head, she wore a white gold circlet with intricate designs etched into it.  
  
Tamni walked over to wear her father was standing with her small dapple grey mare, and with his help, climbed up into the saddle. "Hey Pennydrop, guess what?" Tamni said, leaning forward and whispering in the mare's ear, "We're going to be heroines. I've been asked to perform a powerful spell that will help save the future of the people of our kingdom, and you're going to take me to where I have to perform it. What do you say to that, girl?" The dappled grey mare whinnied happily in response.  
  
"Please come back safely, my little one" Tamni's father said, giving her a small affectionate hug.   
  
"Father!" Tamni laughed in an amused almost slightly annoyed voice, "I'm 16 years old, now. I'm not a little girl, anymore. Besides, I'm going to survive this spell, and live to over 300 million. I just know it." Lord Mage Orenda smiled and kissed Tamni's forehead.   
  
"You're going to be a great high mage, Tamni" he said looking at her with a proud smile, "Just like your mother was when she was alive."   
  
Tamni smiled at her father and mouthed "Thank you, father" to him. Then she turned to the two remaining members of The Magi Triad, and the other three cloaked strangers, who were all now sat upon their own horses, and nodded her head. Both Lady Mage Alvin and Lord Mage Geneveine smiled nodded back and put the hoods of their cloaks back up. Then with that, Tamni put the hood of her own cloak up, and gently nudged Pennydrop to move, and followed after the two mages and the other three strangers, wondering who exactly she was going to be summoning from the future anyway.  
  
********  
  
~ Back in the present day, in Little Brook ~  
  
"Maaaad! Whad tibe id id?" Arizan asked as she woke up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.   
  
"Id's 1:30 in de afdernoon, Mib Lady Lawa" Hadrian answered with idle mischief in his voice, coming over to sit by Arizan's bed, with a mug in his hand.   
  
"Ha Ha! Vewy fuddy Hadwian!" Arizan said sarcastically, "You dow vewy well, by voide geds like thid, wheb I've jud woked ub."   
  
"Here, drink this" Hadrian said, handing her the mug he was holding, "Apparently it can help you wake up properly." Arizan sat up, took the mug from Hadrian's hand, took a sip from it, and... choked.  
  
"Goddess! What on earth is in this stuff?!" exclaimed Arizan, screwing her nose up at the vile taste of the contents of the mug inside her mouth, "It tastes gross!"   
  
"Don't ask me" Hadrian answered with his usually annoyingly calm voice, "I just told the lady who owns this house that we're staying in, that you tend to be a bit groggy when you wake up, and she told me to give you the drink."  
  
"Well," Arizan muttered under her breath, "I think I need another drink to wash the vile taste out of my mouth. Preferably a tall glass of pineapple juice with plenty of ice."   
  
"This is someone's house, Riz" her brother replied calmly, "Not The Hotel Tropicana." Arizan made a face at him, and rolled her eyes.   
  
"How can you be so calm, after the chaos we've been through?" she asked him, feeling slightly annoyed, "We were almost fried last night by some psycho red head, and you're just sitting here going all 'Ho hum, I'm calm, la la la la la.'" She waited for Hadrian to respond, but he didn't say anything. Instead he just sat there with a dreamy far away look on his face.  
  
"Yer thinking about Pandie, aren't ya?" Arizan said flatly.   
  
"No, I'm not" Hadrian said, frowning slightly, "I'm thinking about the mission."   
  
"Yeah right" Arizan said sarcastically, "So when you were thinking about the mission there, were you thinking 'Oh Daybreak Mission, you're the most beautiful mission in the whole wide world!'?"   
  
"Shut up, Arizan" her brother mumbled moodily.   
  
"Why don't you just tell Pandie that you're in love with her?" Arizan asked him calmly.  
  
"Because I'm not in love with her."  
  
Suddenly a scream came from one of the other rooms. "Pandie!" Hadrian gasped, standing up and rushing out the door.   
  
* Oh sure * Arizan thought sarcastically to herself, * He's not in love with Pandie. And my hair's really bright pink. * Sighing to herself, Arizan got up from the bed she'd been sleeping in, not caring that her clothes were crumpled from sleeping in them, and walked after Hadrian.  
  
When she got to were Hadrian had run to, she could see what had caused the scream. "Wow, it's an ominous looking glowy portally thing, right in the middle of the room!" she said in wonderment, and then frowned slightly, "Darn! Why do I never have a camera when I really need it?!" Then she realised there only two people in the room; her and Hadrian.  
  
"Where's Pandie?" Arizan asked, confusion clear in her voice, "I thought she was in here, as well!"   
  
"That thing sucked her up" Hadrian answered her in a worried voice, pointing to the glowing portal in the middle of the room, "Go let Rashel know we need help get Pandie back. I'm going in after Pandie."   
  
"You're what?!?" Arizan almost yelled, "Hadrian, have you gone crazy?? You..." But before Arizan could finish her sentence, Hadrian was jumping into the portal, just as it closed behind him. * Well this is just great. * Arizan thought sarcastically to herself, * Could this get any worse? *   
  
"Arizan, you're awake?" Rashel said, taking Arizan by surprise.   
  
"Um, yeah, it would seem that way" Arizan answered her nervously, "Why? Was I meant to stay asleep?" Rashel laughed.   
  
"Of course not" she said with an amused smile on her face, "I just came up here to see if you were awake, (which as I can plainly see you are) and to let you know I'm wanting to hold a meeting of everyone from our group, who was at the cemetery, last night." "Which reminds me" Rashel continued in a slightly more serious voice, making Arizan suddenly think up a hundred different explanations in her head for what had happened, "Have you seen Hadrian and Pandie?" 


	23. Black Catkin Part 23

Part 23  
  
Arizan looked at Rashel for a few moments, trying to figure out how on earth she was going to tell the older girl what had happened to Hadrian and Pandie. * Like she's really gonna believe me! * Arizan thought sarcastically to herself, imagining the conversation in her mind, * Have I seen Hadrian and Pandie?... Um, yeah, I have... Where did they go to?... Um, well, ya see, there was this weird glowy portally thing right in the middle of this room... Yeah, a weird glowy portally thing... What does a weird glowy portally thing have to do with where Hadrian and Pandie went?... Well, ya see, Pandie was sucked into the weird glowy portally thing and Hadrian jumped in after her... What? You have a present for me?... A straightjacket?... Wow! And it's just my size, too! *  
  
"Um Riz, are you okay?"  
  
"Huh? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine" Arizan answered Rashel, quickly snapping out of the little conversation she'd been having with her mind, "Anyway, what was it ya wanted to know about Hadrian and Pandie?"   
  
"Uh, where they both are?" Rashel prompted with a calm look on her face. Sighing, Arizan decided to give Rashel a quick simple version of what had happened to Hadrian and Pandie.   
  
"Big glowing portal" she said bluntly, stating what had happened in short sentences, "Portal sucks up Pandie. Big dumb idiot brother jumps in after Pandie. Portal closes and vanishes into thin air. The end." She almost added a "Ta da!" at the end, but thought better of it.  
  
Rashel looked at Arizan and frowned slightly. "Are you sure this really happened?" she asked, a look of concern on her face, "You have just woken up from passing out earlier, remember. Your mind's probably still not clear, yet."   
  
"Well, actually, Hadrian and Pandie decided to change their names to Fred and Wilma, and left to elope to Bedrock" Arizan answered Rashel sarcastically, before rolling her eyes and saying in an annoyed voice, "Of course I'm sure it really happened, Rashel. I know you find it hard to believe, but Pandie really was sucked into a strange glowing portal, and Hadrian really did jump in after her." "And one more thing," she added, folding her arms defiantly, "my mind is perfectly clear right now, thank you very much."  
  
"This is just great!" Rashel sighed as she put her head in her hands for a moment, "First we all find out you're really the Dragon Child, and now two people we really need right now, have vanished into thin air!"   
  
"Pandie was sucked into a portal, and Hadrian jumped in after her, actually" Arizan said, correcting Rashel, before staring almost stunned at the dark haired Daybreak vampire hunter and asking, "Wait a minute! Did you just say I was the Dragon Child??"  
  
"Yes, I did" Rashel answered her with a slight frown on her face; "You don't remember how we were able to escape from the cemetery, do you?"   
  
Arizan shook her head. "All I can remember before I blanked out," she explained calmly as she could, "was the confrontation with that red eyed red-head with the attitude problem. Honestly! The mood she was in, you'd think a great big hornet had just stung her right on her bum!" Rashel looked at her, and raised an eyebrow slightly.   
  
"A great big hornet?" she asked Arizan, laughing slightly, before looking serious, "From the wall of fire Ethne conjured up around us, just before she left, I'd say the whole great big hornets' nest had stung her."   
  
Arizan frowned slightly when Rashel mentioned about the wall of fire. * How could we have escaped through that? * she thought puzzled to herself, * Don't tell me we just walked through the great big towering flames without ending up Crispy Fried Daybreakers? * She looked down at her clothes, and noticed there was no sign of any scorch marks on them. * Nope * she thought to herself, her scorch mark free clothes confirming her theory that everyone had just walked through the flames without getting burnt was way too far fetched, * Didn't think so *  
  
"Ah, the young Dragon Child is finally awake, I see."  
  
Arizan looked up to see who had spoken, and noticed a middle-aged woman with slightly greying black hair and dark brown eyes, walk into the room. "Okay, first of all, no offence, but who the heck are you?" Arizan asked the woman in a blunt voice, "Secondly, what's with everyone calling me the Dragon Child? Finally, do you know how to get two people who've disappeared through a portal of light, back?" The dark eyed woman smiled serenely, and then turned to Rashel.   
  
"Miss Jordan" she said calmly to the dark haired vampire hunter, "If you don't mind, could you leave the room, please? I'd like to speak to the Dragon Child, alone." Rashel looked at her for a moment, frowned slightly, then nodded. "I left some old books on Old Kingdom language translating, on the table downstairs" the dark eyed woman went on, "You may find them useful in translating the other scrolls."   
  
"Thank you" Rashel answered her simply, and then gave Arizan a look that said 'don't do anything stupid', before leaving the room.  
  
"Okay, young Dragon..." the dark eyed woman began to say before Arizan interrupted her.   
  
"Wait a minute," Arizan said quickly, "could you just call me Arizan, please? It is my real name." "And besides," she added, "being called the Dragon Child is slightly weirding me out, right now."   
  
"As you wish, Arizan" the woman answered her, smiling politely at Arizan, before introducing herself, "My name is Cornelia."  
  
Arizan looked at Cornelia carefully for a moment. "You're a dark dragon" she stated simply to the dark eyed woman.   
  
"Well observed, young dragoness" Cornelia said, looking very impressed, "And you're not afraid of me?"   
  
Arizan shrugged slightly. "You don't seem evil" she answered Cornelia, "Plus you don't have that whole 'must destroy every single living thing in sight' attitude about you."   
  
"Very good, Arizan" Cornelia said, smiling serenely, "It is good to know you still have some of your dragon powers." Arizan felt slightly confused for a moment.   
  
"Hold on a minute" she said, looking puzzled at Cornelia, "How do you know I have dragon powers? I'm not even a dragon."   
  
"Ah, but you are" Cornelia answered her simply; "You have both kinds of dragon blood running through your system, as well as witch, human and mage blood." Arizan looked questioningly at Cornelia for a moment.   
  
"What do you mean I have both kinds of dragon blood running through my system?" she asked the dark eyed dragoness, "The only type of dragons I know about, are dark dragons like yourself. Unless you count fairytale dragons and those cartoon dragons ya see on the television, but that's just plain ridiculous." Cornelia looked at her for moment, then smiled serenely and nodded slightly, indicating a huge painting on the wall behind Arizan.  
  
Turning around to look at the painting, Arizan could see six very beautiful yet very individual looking ladies, all standing in a sort of semicircle. The first lady was tall, with long white hair the colour of sun rays, with bright sunshine yellow hair framing her face, and almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes. In contrast to the long pale yellow sleeveless tunic she was wearing, and the white gold yellow topaz stone set circlet resting on her head, just over her forehead, her pale peachy gold skin looked as if it was glowing like it was lit up from inside.   
  
The lady next to her was about the same height as her, except her colouring was different. Her straight glossy shoulder length hair was dark purple, and her skin was light olive tanned. The only thing she had in common with the first lady was that her mysterious almond shaped eyes were rainbow flecked. As well as having a different colouring, her tunic and the stone set in the middle of her circlet were different too. The colour of her tunic was sky blue instead of   
pale yellow, and the stone set in the middle of her white gold circlet was an amethyst instead of a yellow topaz stone. When Arizan looked closer at her, she could see what looked like a small patch of lighter skin, in the shape of a crescent moon on one of her temples, just peeping out from under her circlet.  
  
Next to the first two ladies, was a slightly shorter lady with straight glossy dark holly green hair, just past her shoulders, almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes, and milk chocolate brown skin. Her tunic had elbow length sleeves, and was a dark green colour that gradually faded into a pale silvery green. Set in the middle of her white gold circlet was an oval shaped emerald. The lady next to her was slightly taller than her, but not as tall as the first two, with long waist length shimmering white sky blue streaked hair, almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes, and beautiful creamy pale skin. She wore a long white tunic that was sleeveless, much like the tunics the first two ladies, except that she wore a pale silvery blue sash around her waist that faded into a white colour at the ends that were loosely knotted to one side. The stone set in the middle of her circlet was a pale blue sapphire.  
  
The next lady, much to Arizan's surprise, looked a lot like an older version of Ethne. She had the same long flame, copper, and blood red hair that the red eyed assassin had, which looked as if a fire itself was dancing about her head. The only thing different though was that, much like the other four ladies, she had rainbow flecked eyes. She wore a one shouldered sleeveless long tunic that faded from deep red to orange, then to yellow at the bottom; the colours showing of the light golden brown tan of her skin. Like the others, she wore a white gold circlet on her head, with a stone set in the middle. The stone set in her circlet was a bright red ruby.  
  
Finally Arizan looked at the last lady in the painting, who seemed to be the smallest lady in the picture. She had long wavy pale blue green hair that made the pale peaches and cream tone of her skin look like it was shimmering, and almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes, much like the other ladies in the painting had, except her pupils were unusually shaped like small water droplets. Like the first two ladies in the painting, she wore a long sleeveless tunic; the colour being the same pale blue green colour as her hair. In the middle of her white gold circlet, a clear bright watery blue green aquamarine stone glittered and glowed like someone had trapped part of the ocean in the small gem.  
  
"Wow" Arizan said out loud without meaning to, as soon as she finished looking at the painting, "Who are they?"   
  
"They are Kalita Sola, Zaykaia Luna, Malaikia Terra, Saralaine Aera, Rikishia Vesta, and Laimara Aqua" Cornelia answered her calmly, "The Six Sister Dragons. They ruled a race of dragons called the arcobaleno drago, alongside their brother Indeigo, the very first dragon. You are related to them, in a way." Arizan looked at Cornelia and frowned slightly.   
  
"What do you mean?" she asked, still feeling quite puzzled about this dragon stuff Cornelia was talking about.   
  
"You are directly descended from Indeigo's youngest daughter 'Keshet'" Cornelia answered her simply, "Because of this, you have the eyes of the rainbow, plus the ability to weald the red dragon fire." This was getting weird.   
  
"Okay, I understand about the whole rainbow eyes thing," Arizan said flatly, as she looked sceptically at Cornelia, "but I don't really think a ball of red fire is going to come shooting out from my palms, when I do this." She held up her hands in front of her, palms facing outwards, and then thrust them forward, as if throwing some invisible object. Without any warning, a ball of bright scarlet red fire shot out from between Arizan's palms, flew across the room, and smashed straight into what looked like an ancient looking vase, completely disintegrating it into a million tiny pieces.  
  
For a moment Arizan stared at the place where the vase had been, unable to speak. So she really was a dragon, or at least part dragon. * Check me out * a little voice inside Arizan's head said, sounding quite impressed, * I'm a kickass dragoness! Night World baddies of the world watch out! * "That..was..so..cool" she eventually said out loud, before apologising to Cornelia, "Um, sorry about destroying yer vase, though."   
  
"Don't worry about it" Cornelia answered her, with a slightly amused but kind smile on her face, "I never really liked that boring old thing, anyway." Arizan let out a huge sigh of relief, and then suddenly remembered something.  
  
"Hey," she said, frowning slightly at Cornelia, "you haven't answered my other question, yet. Do you know how to get two people (namely my friend Pandie and my brother Hadrian) back, after they've disappeared through a strange portal of light?"   
  
The dark eyed dragoness smiled apologetically then looked serious. "I'm afraid I can't help you get Pandie and your brother Hadrian back" Cornelia said sadly, "I do know someone who can help you, though." She then pointed to a picture of a young woman with long snowy white hair and beautiful dark purple eyes. By the way she was dressed Arizan could tell the young woman in the picture must've been someone very important. She wore a beautiful long violet coloured tunic with splits up the sides that reached just above her mid thighs, and her long white tresses had small braids woven with silver and white gold thread alternating through it. On her head she wore a white gold circlet with intricate designs etched into it.  
  
"Her name is Tamni Orenda" Cornelia said calmly, as if she knew Arizan was going to ask who the young woman in the picture was, "She's a very powerful high mage and one of the leaders of The Magi, a race of spellcasters much like the witches, except they're immortal and their spells are much more powerful than normal witch spells." "She's also a very old friend of mine" Cornelia went on, turning to look at Arizan, "Later on this afternoon she'll be coming here to visit, along with another old friend of mine. If anyone knows a way of getting young Pandora and Hadrian back, it will be Tamni. She definitely can help you."  
  
********  
  
~ Back in the past, in the other world known as The Old Kingdom ~  
  
Strange mossy smells mixed with the strong woody smells of different kinds of trees surrounded Hadrian. He didn't have a clue where he was, but he did know that the strange portal of light that he and Pandie had gone through had dropped them both off in this strange place. Now he was sitting on a patch of soft moss, with Pandie unconscious in his arms, her head resting against his shoulder. Hadrian felt a strange thump in his heart as he looked at the beautiful girl resting in his arms, her long hair, which was a colour that reminded him of honey tea cakes, falling softly over her shoulders, with several loose strands caressing the sides of her face.  
  
* Oh Goddess * Hadrian thought to himself, as he looked longingly at Pandie, * Arizan was right. I am in love with Pandie. * It was true. Ever since the moment he'd laid eyes on her, Hadrian knew deep down in his heart that Pandie was the one for him. He'd do anything for her, even risk his own life to protect her, and he'd go anywhere in the world, just so long as she was by his side. Just then, Pandie woke up.  
  
"Uuuh, what happened?" she groaned as she sat up, then looked around her before looking straight into Hadrian's eyes, a puzzled look on her face, "Where are we?" Hadrian sighed with relief. Pandie was okay.   
  
"I don't know where we are" Hadrian answered her apologetically, "All I know is that you were sucked into a strange portal light, and I went in after you, and that somehow we ended up here."   
  
A small tear trickled down Pandie's cheek. "I'm really sorry" she said sadly, "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here. I wouldn't blame you if you just got and left me here."   
  
Hadrian put both his hands on Pandie's shoulders and looked deep into her beautiful light hazel eyes. "I don't want to leave you" he said softly, as he absent-mindedly brushed a lock of stray hair off her face, "You're too important to me to just leave behind. That's why I followed you through the portal of light." Just as he said this, Hadrian's hand brushed against Pandie's cheek, and a soft pinky purple haze surrounded them both, as the whole world around them began to fall away.  
  
* What is this? * Pandie asked with childlike fascination, as she looked around her at the beautiful cocoon of pinky purple haze that surrounded them both, * I don't want it to stop. * Hadrian smiled at her, knowing exactly how she felt. He wanted to stay like this with Pandie, forever.   
  
* I think it's the soulmate link * Hadrian answered her, as he held her close to him, * In fact, I'm definitely sure it's the soulmate link. * Pandie looked at him and smiled shyly.   
  
* This means we're soulmates, right? * she asked, her smile making Hadrian's heart thump a little faster than normal.   
  
* Yeah, it does * he answered her, his mouth forming into a gentle smile, as he looked deep into Pandie's beautiful light hazel eyes again.   
  
* I'm glad * Pandie said happily, the shy smile still clear on her face, * Because, well, this is going to sound crazy, but, y'see it's just that... * She paused and bit her lip slightly.  
  
* I think I'm falling in love with you. * 


	24. Black Catkin Part 24

Part 24  
  
* You think you're falling in love with me? *  
  
Pandie looked at Hadrian and noticed the slightly surprised look etched on his face. * Um, I didn't say that right * Pandie answered him quickly, biting her lip slightly for a split second, * I don't think I'm falling in love with you. I am falling in love with you. * She looked at Hadrian for a moment, and then asked out loud, "Are you falling in with me?"  
  
"No..."  
  
Pandie's heart began to plummet. * Oh no * she thought sadly to herself, * he's going to say he just thinks of me as a friend or as a little sister! Then he's going to say he's in love with someone... *  
  
Suddenly she felt warm gentle lips against her own, and the whole world fell away as images from Hadrian's mind and her own mind materialised around her. * ...I am in love with you * Hadrian told her through the soulmate link, his fingers entwined in her hair as he cradled her head lovingly. "I just didn't realise it until now" he continued out loud in a hushed whisper.  
  
Feelings of love, tenderness, contentment, and the desire to hold her in his arms forever, flooded from Hadrian's mind and washed over Pandie, like a huge tidal wave, making her feel more happy and content than she ever had been in her entire life. * Oh Hadrian! * Pandie gushed happily as she threw her arms around Hadrian and began smothering his mouth with loving kisses, * I love you! I love you so much that I never ever want to let you go! *  
  
Hadrian laughed silently, and put a finger tenderly to Pandie's mouth, making a quiet "Shhh" noise, and then wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a loving embrace, and began kissing her affectionately. * I don't want to let you go either * he answered her with an amused but loving voice through the soulmate link, * but I think people will start to miss us, if we stay here forever like this. *  
  
Pandie broke the kiss and looked deep into Hadrian's handsome teal coloured eyes. "Then hold me, please" she whispered quietly, resting her forehead against her soulmate's forehead, "Just for now." Hadrian looked at her lovingly, and then kissed her gently on her forehead.   
  
* Just for now * he answered her lovingly through the soulmate link, echoing Pandie's last sentence as he pulled her once more into his loving embrace.  
  
And with that the two soulmates held each other lovingly and tenderly, lost (just for that moment) in their own little world. Little did they realise that there were eyes watching them, and at least one pair of those eyes was not friendly. 


	25. Black Catkin Part 25

Part 25  
  
~ Present day: Little Brook ~  
  
Ash stared at the cell phone in his hand, sighing as he contemplated whether or not to call Mary-Lynnette. The cell phone was one of the types that could have it's cover changed, and the particular cover on Ash's phone was one he had had specially made; midnight blue with an amazingly realistic pattern of stars, and on the back, was a pair of beautiful bright snapping blue eyes, just like the beautiful bright snapping blue eyes that belonged to his beloved Mare. Mare. His wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous, blue eyed Mare. He closed his eyes and continued to say sigh as he remembered how he'd spent Christmas with her, the month before.   
  
It had been the first time they had been together since Ash had left Briar Creek, the year before, to make up for all the evil things he had done up until he'd met Mary-Lynnette, found out she was his soulmate, and had subsequently fallen madly in love with the beautiful blue eyed human girl. Mary-Lynnette had looked so beautiful at the Christmas Party at Burdock Farm, wearing a stunning, shimmering, sapphire blue strappy evening dress that had bought out the colour of her eyes. Ash then sighed and grinned stupidly as he remembered that after the party, he and Mare had spent a good deal of time making out; not having seen each other for over a year, they'd had a lot of catching to do in the romance department.  
  
"Ash, if you don't stop sighing like an idiot and grinning like you've had too much to drink, I will be forced to skewer you with something sharp, wooden and pointy."  
  
Ash stopped sighing, then opened his eyes and looked across the room, at Rashel, who was glaring at him slightly, over the top of a scroll she was trying to decipher. Immediately the stupid grin on Ash's face, dropped. Even though Rashel wouldn't really stake him, Ash knew that she was getting pretty annoyed with him.  
  
Deciding to take his mind off Mary-Lynnette, Ash turned to talk to Arizan, who at that moment had all her hair stuffed into a huge floppy velvet hat placed firmly on top of her head.  
  
"So Riz," Ash asked the newly discovered Dragon Child, "are you getting the hang of your powers, yet?" The young mixed-breed dragoness sighed in response.   
  
"Sort of" she answered him vaguely, pulling the floppy hat further down over her head, "I've pretty much gotten the hang of the red dragon fire, and I'm getting quite good with the mind listening powers." When she said this, Arizan looked at Rashel and frowned slightly.  
  
"I'm not taking off the stupid hat Rashel" she said stubbornly, still frowning at the dark haired female vampire hunter, "Until I get the hang of doing a normal shift, this hat, in all its velvety floppiness, is staying firmly on my bonce."  
  
Ash was slightly puzzled at the mention of a normal shift, but didn't let it show. "You don't usually let your hair bother you, Little Blue" he said calmly to Arizan, raising an eyebrow casually, "Don't worry. No one will laugh at you if you take off the hat." Arizan gave him a serious look.   
  
"I'm not worried about anyone laughing at me," she said calmly, pulling her legs up so that she was sitting cross-legged in the chair she was seated in, "I just want to get the hang of normal shifting my hair before I show anyone, so I don't end up looking like an idiot."  
  
"You'd never look like an idiot, Riz."  
  
"Thanks Ash, but right now my hair looks like a team of hair colourists attacked it with several bottles of hair dye, but had an argument over the actual colour."  
  
"Ah."  
  
"My point exactly."  
  
"Your eyes seem different, though" Ash said thoughtfully, noticing Arizan's rainbow flecked eyes had changed to a natural dark chocolate brown colour, "Were you able to do a normal shift with them, or have you just got your contacts in?" Arizan gave a wry grin at Ash's question.   
  
"Nope," she said with an almost proud smile, "these are my own eyes sans coloured contact lenses." And to prove her point, the young mixed-breed dragoness did something strange with her eyes. She actually shifted the colour of her eyes. One moment her eyes were dark chocolate brown, and the next, all the different colours of the rainbow she normally had flecked around her eyes gradually reappeared, and stayed for a brief moment, before the dark chocolate brown colour appeared once more.  
  
Ash was impressed. He'd never seen anyone able to change the colour of their eyes at will, before. Even he had no control over what colours his eyes kept changing to. "So, how come you can change the colour of your eyes," he asked the young Dragon Child questioningly, after a moment's thought, "and not the colour of your hair?"  
  
"I like this colour."  
  
"Then why don't you pick a colour you like for your hair?"  
  
At this point, Rashel stopped what she was doing and looked at Ash. "I already suggested that to her, Ash," the black haired female vampire hunter sighed, "but the silly girl is too indecisive."   
  
"I am not indecisive" Arizan retorted, before grinning sheepishly, "I just happen to like a lot of colours, that's all." Rashel rolled her eyes, shook her head, and went back to trying to decipher another scroll.  
  
Ash was just about to suggest to Arizan that she should just try picking her favourite hair colour, when a book was thrown into his lap, and a small figure clambered up beside him. "What's this?" he asked, looking puzzled at the picture of a cat wearing boots and a big hat with an enormous feather in it on the front of the book currently in his lap.   
  
"I believe it's called a storybook" Quinn answered him, not once looking up from the scroll he was helping Rashel to decipher, "Little children like to read them." "Or" he added casually, "have them read to them."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Little Faline wants you to read her a story" Arizan said, making the current situation more clearly to Ash, "Isn't that right, Faline?" Ash looked down at the dirty fair haired green eyed little girl seated beside him and saw her nod her small head calmly.   
  
"Okay," Ash sighed, picking up the book and opening it to the first page, "but I should warn you, I might not be able to do the voices."   
  
"Awww, come on Ash," Quinn said, putting on a mock pout and imitating a childish voice, "we want to hear you do the voooiiiccceees."  
  
Ignoring Quinn's teasing, Ash began to read from the first page of the book; making sure to do the character's voices for Faline, despite Quinn still teasing him about it. When he was about to turn to the next page, Ash noticed something small flat and rectangular fall out. It was a photograph of two girls. The girl on the left of the picture had long honey blonde hair and strange grey brown eyes, while the girl beside her looked exactly like Arizan, except for the fact she had long shimmering white blonde hair and bright sapphire blue eyes. Thinking that the picture might help Arizan with her current problem, Ash handed it to her.  
  
Arizan looked at the picture and looked almost sad for a moment. "What's wrong, Riz?" Ash asked, worried that he'd somehow upset the young mixed-breed dragoness by giving her the picture.   
  
"Oh, it's nothing" the young Dragon Child sighed, still looking at the picture, "It's just that one of the girls in this picture reminds me of someone."   
  
"Maybe because she looks almost like you." Ash answered her thoughtfully.   
  
"No, that's not it" Arizan said sadly, putting the picture down, "The person I'm remembering died when I was little." "Anyway," she went on, her sad face melting into a calm smile, "This picture has given me an idea what colour I want to shift my hair to." With that, she closed her eyes and let a look of calm concentration appear briefly on her face.  
  
When she opened her eyes again, Arizan grinned proudly. "I think I've gotten it right this time" she said happily, beginning to pull the floppy velvet hat off her head, "Let me know what you all think." Ash watched amazed as a waterfall of long shimmering white blonde hair was revealed as Arizan took off her hat.   
  
"That's very good, Riz" he said, smiling at the young mixed-breed dragoness, "What do you guys think?"   
  
"I think she looks pretty," Faline's small voice answered him first, "like a fairytale princess."   
  
Across the room Quinn chuckled quietly. "I have to agree with young Faline." he said calmly, before turning to his soulmate and asking, "What do you think, Rashel?"   
  
"I agree with Quinn and Faline." Rashel answered him, smiling solemnly as she put down the scroll she had been deciphering, "You look great Arizan. Just remember you have to stick to that look when you're out in public. We can't risk the wrong people discovering who you are, you know that?"   
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know" Arizan sighed, rolling her eyes, obviously not liking the sudden over protectiveness she was getting thanks to her being the Dragon Child, "Don't go out without doing a normal shift first. I got ya." To prove her point, the young Dragon Child did a mock salute, before grinning mischievously.  
  
Although Arizan didn't seem to care about what she was, Ash could tell from her mannerisms that she did. "Don't worry, Riz" he reassured the young mixed-breed dragoness, giving her a kind smile, "As long as you've got me, Quinn and Rashel, plus all your other friends who care about you, no one working for the Dark One will lay a finger on you."  
  
"Thanks Ash."  
  
********  
  
~ Back in the past: The Old Kingdom ~  
  
A sinister hissing growl awoke Hadrian and Pandie from the deep slumber they'd both fallen into. Hadrian opened his eyes to see cruel orbs the colour of molten lava staring back at him. Immediately he pulled Pandie closer to him to protect from this evil looking creature before them. It was big as a bus, had the body of a panther, with mottled black and brown scales instead of fur, and an elongated muzzle and huge pointed ears. On its back was the most ominous thing of all; a pair of jet black wings, that not a single bit of light shone through.  
  
The creature threw back its head and gave a loud rasping growl, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth. As it did this, Pandie struggled out of Hadrian's grasp and stood facing the creature. What she did next amazed him. She began changing form until she was no longer a girl but what looked like a cross between a girl and dark blonde cat. She had cat-like eyes, pointed cat-like ears on the top of her head, a long swishing tail, dark blonde paws instead of hands, and soft dark blonde fur all over her body except for her arms.  
  
Standing in front of Hadrian, Pandie hissed at the creature and drew her claws. The creature took one look at her and laughed cruelly. "Little fool," it hissed, throwing black fire at Pandie. Pandie screamed and fell to the ground.   
  
Immediately Hadrian went to her side and pulled her close into his arms. "Who are you?" he asked the creature in a demanding voice, stroking Pandie's back soothingly, "What do you want with us?"  
  
The creature laughed again and started pacing towards Hadrian and Pandie. It was just about to throw more black fire, when it suddenly stopped and lurched forward. Hadrian looked up and noticed a strange looking girl standing some distance behind the creature holding a bow and white gold arrows, along with a strange curved decorated sword. She was tall with short chin-length dark blue hair with ruby red hair framing her face, and almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes. The creature turned to face the girl, revealing a white gold arrow in its back between its wings, and threw black fire at the girl. Instantly the girl retaliated with her own red fire, causing the black fire to turn back and hit the creature.   
  
"Roz raqa uz ekze, Chatazra," the girl called out bravely, walking towards the creature, "You cannot fight the white gold poison, black wing." The black wing laughed.   
  
"You think you can stop me?" it hissed at the girl, throwing more black fire at her.   
  
"I don't think I can," the girl answered back sincerely; "I know I can." With that, she leapt out of the way of the black fire, landed on the black wing's back, and with one fell swoop, severed the cruel black wings from its body. Quickly the girl leapt off the black wing's back as it let a piercing howl and then crumpled into dust.  
  
"Terrible nuisances, those black wings," the girl said casually, walking towards Hadrian and Pandie, "They don't know a thing about sticking to their own territory." She knelt down beside Pandie and examined her. "Hmmm, hardly a scratch or burn," she said thoughtfully, looking at Pandie's arms and face, "You must be the one I was sent to look for." Hadrian stared at the girl and frowned   
puzzledly.   
  
"I'm sorry," he said apologetically, still frowning puzzledly, "but who are you, and why where you looking for Pandie?"  
  
"My name is Neemika Keshet," the girl explained, looking Hadrian straight in the eye, "I was looking for your soulmate because I was requested to do so."  
  
"Who sent you?"  
  
"The Six Sister Dragons." 


	26. Black Catkin Part 26

Part 26  
  
~ Present day: Somewhere outside Little Brook ~  
  
"Want to meet your oldest ancestor?"  
  
Murphy turned to look at Tamni who had just spoken. She had been thinking about how she had broken her promise to Liedryn and how she'd managed to get the ring she'd been wearing on her finger. She didn't remember getting it or who gave it to her. If only she knew, then she'd be able to find out who gave her such a beautiful ring. Shaking her head, Murphy looked at Tamni.  
  
"I'd love to meet my oldest ancestor." she said, smiling at the snowy haired mage, "Are you sure she's still alive?"   
  
"As much as me and Neemika are still alive." Tamni answered her with a smile, adjusting her spectacles, "The camp she's residing in isn't too far from here. We can stop off and see her before we have to go on with our next item of business."   
  
"Okay," Murphy said cheerfully, "let's go meet her then."  
  
After driving for a while, they soon came to an entrance outside a forest. Neemika stopped the van, parked it near the entrance, and got out. Murphy and Tamni followed suit and where just following the blue and red haired arcobaleno to the entrance when a loud voice stopped them.  
  
"HALT! Who goes there? Identify yourselves!"  
  
Murphy watched as Neemika rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid, Loki." the female arcobaleno said with a sigh, "You know fine well it's us."  
  
"How do I know you're not black wings in disguise?"  
  
* Because they don't smell like black wings, you idiot. *  
  
A little surprised at where the mysterious mind voice was coming from, Murphy watched as a beautiful Siberian husky pad into view and changed into short girl with long wavy silver blue hair with lilac streaks and rainbow flecked eyes. "Loki, stop being such a nit and get out of that tree!" the girl shouted up to one of the trees at the entrance, "This is no way to treat such important guests as one of the Magi Triad and her friends."  
  
"Okay! Okay! Keep your hair on! I'm coming down!"  
  
Before Murphy could say anything, a tall boy jumped out of the tree and landed gracefully on the ground. He had messy sooty black hair with silver streaks and strange eyes; the left one was dark sapphire blue and the right one was rainbow flecked. "Hey Tamni! Neemika!" the boy said, smiling sheepishly, "Sorry about the misunderstanding."   
  
"It's okay, Loki." Tamni said, smiling forgivingly at the strange eyed boy, "We've bought someone to meet the Dragon Princess." Turning to Murphy, Tamni introduced her to Loki and the girl.  
  
"Guys? This is Naida Drache"  
  
"Please, call me Murphy."  
  
"Nice to meet ya, Murphy." the girl said, walking up to Murphy and giving her a friendly handshake, "I'm Sukida and this nutcase here is my younger brother Loki." Loki scowled briefly, then smiled and walked up to Murphy to shake her hand.   
  
"It's a pleasure to meet such a beautiful descendant of the Dragon Princess." he said charmingly, lifting Murphy's hand and kissing it.  
  
"Don't flatter yourself, Loki; she's clearly not interested in you."  
  
"Well you can't hurt a guy for trying, can you?"  
  
Murphy laughed as Loki smiled mischievously at her. "No, you're okay, Loki." she said, grinning up at him, "I'm very flattered. Any girl would be lucky to have you as a boyfriend."  
  
Sukida rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I don't think you should've said that." she muttered under her breath to Murphy, "He keeps thinking he's such a ladies man, now he's going to start believing it." "By the way," Sukida said, turning to Tamni, "I had a dream about Riz, last night. Are you close to finding her?"  
  
"Yes, we're very close."  
  
Wait a minute! Did these people know Arizan? Murphy was sure Arizan had never spoken of them before. She was just going to ask Tamni if they actually knew Arizan, when a beautiful lilting voice spoke.  
  
"Ah, High Mage Orenda, Neemika Keshet, it's a pleasure to see you both." the lilting voice spoke coming from a tall lady with long dark grey hair and black eyes who moved into view, "Who's your friend?"  
  
Murphy looked amazed at the lady; she was very beautiful and looked very important. She was dressed in a long purple shift with flared sleeves and had a silver circlet rested on her head.  
  
"Your Majesty, I'd like you to meet one of your descendants, Naida Drache." Tamni said, putting her hand on Murphy's shoulder and smiling at her, "She prefers to be called Murphy, though. Murphy, this is Princess Xiara: the Dragon Princess." 


	27. Black Catkin Part 27

Part 27  
  
~ Back in the past: The Old Kingdom ~  
  
Pandie looked amazed at her surroundings. She was in the most beautiful room she had ever seen in her entire life. There was a four poster bed with gauzy white net curtains and gold silk sheets and covers trimmed with pale gold lace. On the floor there was a pale gold carpet that was at least three inches deep and around the walls small golden dragons held up glowing torches of light.  
  
Walking over to the bed, she noticed that a long pale gold tunic dress had been laid out for her to wear. Changing out of her clothes, she slipped the tunic dress on and went to admire herself in the mirror. The sight that greeted her was amazing. Her reflection showed a beautiful young lady dressed in pale gold that brought out the colour of her hair and eyes. The material of the tunic dress felt so soft against her skin that Pandie wondered if there was a material like it in her own world. Just as she was thinking this a knock at the door made her turn around.  
  
"Come in."  
  
Hadrian stepped into the room looking slightly worried. As soon as he saw Pandie though, his expression changed. "You look so..." he gulped, staring in awe at her, trying to get out the right words, "so..."   
  
"Strange in this dress?" Pandie asked, worried that the dress might not suit her after all.   
  
"No," Hadrian said gently, walking up to her and putting his arms around her waist, "you look so beautiful." As he said this he ran his fingers through her hair and kissed her softly on the lips. As their lips touched the soulmate link flared up and they were once again lost in their own little world.  
  
* Are you angry at me? *  
  
* What for? *  
  
* For not telling you I'm a half-breed. *  
  
Hadrian looked at Pandie with nothing but love in his eyes and it was then that she realised he could never be angry with her. * I'm not angry at you. * he said, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes, * I understand that you were afraid to tell me or any of the others that you were a half-breed. * * You see, * he went on, looking deep into Pandie's eyes, * I'm not a pure blood either. * Pandie looked at him surprised.   
  
* How? *  
  
* My mother is half witch half vampire and my father is human. *  
  
He looked at her warily as though he was waiting to see what her reaction would be. * You're a mixed breed? * Pandie asked wonderingly, lifting her hand to caress Hadrian's cheek.   
  
* Yes, * Hadrian said quietly, lifting his hand and placing it over Pandie's,   
* I Hadrian Hawthorne Taylor have vampire blood running through my veins. * * You're not afraid of me now, * he went on, looking deep into her eyes, * are you? * Pandie smiled at him and leaned forward kissing him gently on the mouth.   
  
* I could never be afraid of you. * she said lovingly, as she pulled away from the kiss and rested her forehead against his, * You're my soulmate. I love you too much to be afraid of you. *  
  
Suddenly a small cough sounded in the room causing the two soulmates to break their link. Turning around Pandie could see a tall lady with long waist length white shimmery sky blue streaked hair, rainbow flecked eyes and creamy pale skin. She wore a long white sleeveless tunic with a pale silvery blue sash around her waist that faded into a white colour at the ends that were loosely knotted to one side and on her head rested a white gold circlet with a pale blue sapphire set in the middle.  
  
"I am Saralaine Aera." the lady said in a soft lilting voice, answering Pandie's unasked question, "My sisters and I will speak with you now, young Dragon Guardian." 


	28. Black Catkin Part 28

Part 28  
  
Hadrian and Pandie followed Saralaine through many corridors. On each wall they passed hung tapestries of dragons with a multitude of different colours and strange rainbow flecked eyes. Beside them in the tapestries were men and women who like the dragons had rainbow flecked eyes and hair each a different colour of the rainbow. * Who and what are these people? * Hadrian thought puzzled to himself.   
  
"We are the arcobaleno." Saralaine answered him, surprising the young mixed bred vampire by reading his mind, "Many of us are descended from the first dragon Indeigo created by the high mage Hesperos Alvin for his humae soulmate Tamni Merryling."  
  
"Are you descended from Indeigo?"  
  
"Oh no," Saralaine answered Hadrian, laughing musically, "I am not descended from the King of the arcobaleno. I was created the same way he was, therefore he is my brother."  
  
Surprised by this revelation, Hadrian hardly noticed that they had entered a grand hall. "So this is the Moon Dragon Guardian and her soulmate." a wind chimes voice spoke, grabbing Hadrian's attention, "You are both the way I dreamed you to be." Hadrian looked around for the speaker of the voice and found it belonged to one of the women standing in a circle around the large room. She had shoulder length straight glossy dark purple hair, golden olive skin and almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes. She was wearing a long sleeveless sky blue tunic dress and on her head rested a white gold circlet with an amethyst stone set in the middle.  
  
"Zaykaia, what are you doing here?"  
  
The purple haired woman turned to look at Pandie questioningly. "I am one of The Six Sister Dragons." she said calmly, answering Pandie's question, "It is my duty to be here, my child. However, let me ask you a question; how do you know my name?" Hadrian looked puzzled at Pandie. How did she know this woman Zaykaia? They'd only just met her. Had Pandie met her before he, Arizan and the rest of their Daybreak team came to Little Brook?  
  
"Don't you remember?" Pandie was saying, looking wide eyed at Zaykaia, "You brought me to your taibhreamh crios." Zaykaia smiled serenely at Pandie.   
  
"It is true that you have met me," she said calmly, looking Pandie straight in the eyes, "but it is my future self that you have met, young Dragon Guardian." Beside her a slightly shorter woman with straight glossy dark holly green hair past her shoulders, milk chocolaty brown skin and rainbow flecked eyes gave Pandie an assessing look.   
  
"Zaykaia Luna," she spoke with a velvety sounding voice, "if this child has meet your future self then are we right in thinking that she is the one we are looking for?" Zaykaia merely nodded.  
  
Confused by everything that was going on, Hadrian turned to speak to each of the women. "What are you talking about?" he asked, confusion clear in his voice, "What do you want with Pandie? And..." He looked around him and noticed that there were only five women in the room. Someone was missing. "...I thought there was six of you." he continued on, "Where is the missing Sister Dragon?"   
Each woman gave Hadrian a calming or serene look.   
  
"Our sister the Fire Dragon cannot be here, because it was fated that she would not meet the Moon Dragon Guardian this time around." answered a woman with white hair the colour of sun beams with sunshine yellow hair framing her face, almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes and peachy golden skin, "As for what we want with your soulmate, you will find out in due time."  
  
**********  
  
~ Present day: Little Brook ~  
  
Bored with staying inside, Arizan had sneaked out to the back garden of Cornelia's house. As she walked across the grass, she noticed Liedryn throwing kicks and punches at an ancient looking oak tree. "So," Arizan asked casually, grabbing the shifter princess's attention, "are you trying to kill the tree or are you just punishing it for being tall, wooden and boring?"  
  
"Leave me alone, Arizan."  
  
Arizan shook her head. "Wrong answer, Liedryn." she said calmly, folding her arms and giving her friend a defiant look that meant she wasn't going anywhere, "Something is bothering you and I want to know what it is." Liedryn stopped what she was doing and turned to give Arizan an exasperated look.   
  
"You always where a noisy little cow, weren't you?" she asked, raising her eyebrow at Arizan.   
  
"Darn straight I am." Arizan answered her, smirking slightly, "I wouldn't be the annoying little girl you became friends with all those years ago, would I?" Liedryn laughed slightly.   
  
"No, you're right." she said calmly, a smile appearing for a brief second on her face, "You wouldn't be. I don't know what we would do if you become dull and conservative."  
  
"So, what's the problem?"  
  
"Naida broke a promise."  
  
Arizan frowned slightly at this comment. Liedryn didn't normally call Murphy by her real name unless she was seriously upset with her. "What promise did she break?" she asked, wanting to know more about what was going on between the two Drache twins.   
  
"We made a promise when we were younger that when we turned eighteen we would choose what animal we each shifted into at the same time." Liedryn answered her calmly, explaining everything to Arizan, "Unfortunately, from what I saw last night at the cemetery, Naida has decided to break that promise."   
  
"Maybe she had a good reason to do so."  
  
"Maybe, but she should have told me."  
  
"Then speak to her when you see her, instead of letting it out on a poor innocent tree."  
  
Liedryn laughed as Arizan said this. "Thanks Riz." she said, smiling gratefully at the young mixed bred dragoness, "I'll do that." As she was speaking a beautiful golden eagle flew past her and landed on a nearby perch.  
  
"Wow," Arizan explained in awe, "I've never seen a golden eagle this close before." To her surprise Liedryn was walking over to it. "What are you doing?" Arizan asked in a hushed whisper.   
  
"I'm going to look at it closer." Liedryn answered her calmly as she walked up to the brown gold feathered bird, "It won't hurt me, I promise." Arizan watched as Liedryn walked up to the golden eagle and began stroking it.  
  
"It's such a beautiful bird, isn't it?"  
  
"Yes, it's very beautiful."  
  
"Wouldn't it be wonderful to be a golden eagle and sore high above the clouds?"  
  
Arizan gave Liedryn a puzzled look. "What are you talking about, Li?" she asked, looking at the shifter princess and the golden eagle. Liedryn smiled calmly at her, still stroking the golden eagle.  
  
"I've decided."  
  
"Decided what?"  
  
"I'm going to take on its form." 


	29. Black Catkin Part 29

Part 29 

Arizan lay back in the grass gazing up at the two eagles soaring above her. She'd already spent ten minutes staring at a young female silver fox that had been wandering around the garden: pondering what it would be like to take on her form. That, in the end, had made her feel weird all over. In fact she'd had to close her eyes for a moment to get over it.

"Riz! You've got guests here to see you!"

Snapping out of her little daydream, Arizan opened her mouth to answer Rashel. She was all ready to say "I'm over here" but when she did make a sound all that came out was a yip.

Okay, this is not funny she thought to herself, Someone's played a stupid joke on me and turned me into an animal Of course, deep down, Arizan knew that it was by her own doing that she wasn't currently human.

Uh, I've a bit of a problem

"What kind of problem? Arizan speak in your normal voice."

I can't

"What do you mean you can't?"

Well...

Arizan took a good look at herself. She looked like a silvery furred fox wearing human clothes way too big for her. I've got a tail the young mixed bred dragoness called out nervously, and a wet nose. Oh, and I seem to have four paws, pointy ears and silver fur all over

There was silence for a moment then the sound of feet thundered over to where Arizan lay on the grass: paws in the air. A figure she didn't recognize loomed over her: an idiotic grin plastered on his odd eyed face.

"Cooooooooooooooooooooool"

Was that the World's longest drawn out use of the word cool?? "You're a silver fox!" the boy said enthusiastically, the inane grin still on his face, "That is one of the best shifts you could choose." "By the way," he rambled on, "it is so great to see you again after all these years."

Again??

"Don't you remember? I'm Lo-oaf"

Loaf? What kind of silly name is that?

Another figure, this time female, knelt by Arizan as she asked this question. "Forgive the idiocy of my brother" the girl said, examining one of Arizan's paws like someone used to looking after animals, "He often forgets his place from time to time. I told him that constantly bouncing a rock on his head was doing him no favours, but would he listen?"

"Hey!?"

Uh, I hate to break up this family banter Arizan interrupted, feeling bewildered as she wriggled onto all four paws, but who are you people?

"Apparently they're relatives of Cornelia's, come to see you," Rashel answered her, walking up and staring pointedly at the trio with her arms folded, "but I'll let them introduce themselves"

"My name is Sidra" the girl said, still examining Arizan's paw, "and that idiot there is my brother Kelan. We originally came here to visit our great grand aunt Cornelia, but when she told us the Dragon Child was here we had no choice but to see you."

Looking into the girl's dark purple eyes Arizan felt a strange connection with her: like she should already know who she was. Annoyingly she couldn't figure out how. Instead she scrambled onto her four paws and looked up at both the boy and girl squarely.

You guys are shifters, right?

"That is true"

Can you teach me how to turn myself human again? Arizan asked them, hoping her little foxy eyes weren't looking too sheepish Kind of got into this state by accident

The girl smiled wryly, a lock of dark chocolate coloured hair falling between her eyes, "I can help you out, but only on one condition"

I'll do anything. Name it

"You come back with us"

"Are they going to be okay?"

Half an hour ago Sukida and Loki had ventured out on their own on a trip to visit their great grand aunt Cornelia. For some strange reason Murphy was concerned about them. Despite them both being fiercely independent, and being that way herself, the shifter princess found herself wanting to give them the "Look both ways before you cross and don't talk to strangers" talk.

"Don't worry" Tamni answered her calmly, placing a hand on her shoulder and gently ushering her into a large medieval style tent, "They'll be all right. They've got bus passes." When Murphy gave her a blank look she continued, "They've been trained from a young age how to fight and defend themselves. If anything dangerous happens they know what to do"

"Tamni's right" Neemika added, reaffirming what the purple eyed mage had just said, "Sukida and Loki have to face the big bad world on their own. They wouldn't have it any other way."

"You can say that again Neem" a voice piped up from inside the tent: a voice that was deep and baritone, "If one of my cousins suddenly decided they wanted to live a normal life and join a high school debate team I'd think some black mage had scrambled their brains." Murphy looked for the source of the voice and got the shock of her life.

"It's it's..."

"Murphy? Are you okay? You've gone a bit pale"

"What's he doing here??" the shifter princess managed to get out in a choking breath, pointing to the tall dark red haired man who'd joined them.

Both Tamni and Neemika and even the red haired stranger looked very puzzled and concerned. "Are you talking about Reuven?" Neemika asked bewildered, looking from Murphy to the stranger, "I didn't realize you knew him."

"Reuven?" now it was Murphy's turn to be puzzled and bewildered, "So you're not Hunter Redfern?" Reuven narrowed his eyes as if he was assessing the situation then smiled: a smile that was warm, kind and welcoming.

"Last time I checked I wasn't him" he said with good humoured nature, "I can reassure you right now that I'm not him." Murphy looked closely at Reuven and saw that he was telling the truth. Even though he looked a lot like Hunter Redfern, he looked younger and more handsome with rainbow flecked eyes instead of yellow and a silver streak in the front of his hair.

"I'm so sorry" Murphy apologized, feeling a bit silly, "It's just you look so much like him."

"I'm not surprised you thought that Murphy" Tamni said, smiling calmly, "Care to tell Miss Drache your full name Reuven?"

"Of course M'Lady" Reuven answered her with a courteous bow, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Reuven Hashteher-Redfern. Grandson of Grayling Hashteher and son of Redfern the son of Maya. My mother is Sukida and Loki's father's sister. She was my father's soulmate."

"Was?" Murphy asked puzzled and concerned, "What happened to her?"

"She got seriously wounded during the war between Maya and Hellewise" Reuven said, bowing his head and looking mournful, "The only way for her to recover was for her to be put to sleep the same way the dark dragons had been put to sleep by Hecate. It tore my father's soul apart when it happened. To this day still no one knows whose side he's on."

"Awww, what a sad tale" everyone looked around for the menacing voice, chills running up and down Murphy's spine, "If I had feeling I might have cried."

"Draquis" Tamni spoke in a hushed whisper.

"What do you want Draquis?" Neemika demanded in a no nonsense voice, not caring where the voice had come from, "We don't have time for your black wing nonsense."

"Bring the Dragon Child to my master" Draquis said musically, "If you do this beautiful young shifter princess won't get hurt." Murphy gasped.

"Liedryn!" she shouted, her voice panicked, "If you hurt my sister I'll tear you from limb to..."

"You have twenty four hours to comply" Draquis spoke, ignoring Murphy's ranting, "If you fail it's bye bye Little Miss Drache Princess."


	30. Black Catkin Part 30

**Author's Note:** The character Hazel Harman belongs to Hazel Harman. I'm using her with Hazel's permission.

Part 30

Ash focused his eyes on the road. He didn't know how he'd managed it but he had actually gotten Arizan away from Little Brook safely. There had been chaos when Murphy had turned up with the rainbow dragon Neemika Keshet and the high mage Tamni Orenda and relayed the threat given out by the black wing Draquis. However, when everyone had calmed down, they all agreed that Ash should take Arizan and Cornelia's niece and nephew back to Vegas while Rashel and Quinn stayed behind with Murphy, Neemika and Tamni to rescue Liedryn.

"So, what's Las Vegas like?"

The voice was so quiet even Ash could barely make it out. "It's big" he answered the young girl in the passenger seat beside him, "and flashy." When the girl didn't say anything he continued on, "To be honest it's just like any city except it has big casinos and tacky hotels to draw in the tourists. Trust me kid, they'll accept you."

"Accept me?"

"Yeah you. You're a... What are you anyway?" Ash wasn't quite sure what a rainbow dragon or a mage was and this girl seemed to scream both and more.

This time the girl's voice was louder. "I'm a mixed breed dragoness" she said, sticking her chin out defiantly as if standing up to some invisible bully, "I'm not a weirdo."

"Whoa, hey kid" Ash spoke steadily whilst making sure his eyes didn't leave the road, "Calm down. No one's calling you a weirdo. What's your name anyway? I mean your real name."

The girl looked unsure and glanced in the back of the car at Arizan sleeping on the back seat. The girl's brother slept beside Arizan: his arm around her protectively. They looked so sweet and peaceful. Almost like a big brother protecting his little sister from the big bad world. That was until the boy squirmed, moaned "But I wanna play with the dolly" and stuck his thumb in his mouth. "I'm Sukida" the girl said, turning back to Ash, "and the idiot back there is my younger brother Loki"

Ash glanced in the driver's mirror at Loki in the back. With his sooty black and chunky silver streaked hair and eyes that Ash knew concealed one dark blue eye and one rainbow flecked eye Loki looked like he could be quite a character.

"So where're your parents?" Ash asked Sukida, continuing the conversation, "Someone will have to let them know you and Loki are being taken to Daybreak Headquarters."

"My dad is in Kansas intercepting a group of blood hunters" Ash didn't dare ask what a blood hunter was; "I don't have a mother. My real mum died in a house fire on my fourth birthday. I was lucky because my dad had taken me and my brothers out to see a movie, but my mum died from smoke inhalation and my little sister who'd been sick with the flu disappeared without a trace." Sukida went silent.

"Arizan's your little sister" It wasn't a question it was a statement.

Sukida opened her mouth to deny what Ash had said then hesitated and whispered "Yes, she is"

"And you haven't told her this because?"

"If I tell her it'll be too much of a shock" Sukida said, staring straight ahead as if interested in something on the road, "How do you think she'll feel if she finds out her real family haven't contacted her until now?"

"You're going to have to tell her sooner or later" Ash said calmly, hoping Sukida listen to reason, "You can't keep living a lie around her you know" "Anyway" he went on when Sukida remained silent, "Start smiling. Sleeping Beauty and her friend are waking up."

The rest of the car journey Sukida laughed and joked with Arizan and Loki. Ash even joined in when they started singing silly car songs. By the time Ash pulled up to Thierry's Mansion they were all singing the last verse in a very silly version of Old McDonald Had A Farm in which Old McDonald had a green bug eyed Martian that went meeb beep here meeb beep there everywhere a meeb beep.

Waiting on the front steps of the mansion was a tall girl with grey eyes and dark hair except for a white streak that went horizontally all the way through it and a tall boy with white blonde hair and deep sea green eyes. Ash watched Loki and the sea green eyed boy glare daggers at each other until a loud squeal interrupted the tension.

"Haaaazelll!!"

"Rizzooooo!!!"

This was followed by much mad dancing on both Hazel and Arizan's part. "Ash!" Ash braced himself for an attack of mad hugging, "Good to see you cuz" Hazel gave him a gentle squeeze.

"Isn't anyone going to introduce me to the new guests?" The white blonde was watching Sukida with particular interest: like a mix between a hunter watching its prey and someone admiring a beautiful piece of art. Loki instinctively put his arm around Sukida.

"Oops! Sorry! Guys, this is Tauren Whiteash and..."

"Miss Taylor?"

Ash watched Arizan nearly jump as Nilsson appeared behind her as he opened the front door. "Crap and a half! Nilsson!" Arizan swore under her breath, "Warn me next time, okay."

"Sorry Miss Taylor" Nilsson apologized, "but Lord Thierry wishes to see you in his office urgently."

"Um, is this about that broken Ming vase? Because I was going to replace it"

"What broken Ming vase?"

"Uh, nothing. Lead the way Nilsson"

"Well," Hazel said as soon as Arizan had left with Nilsson, "I guess I'd better finish the introductions. I'm Hazel Harman and you guys are?"

"Sukida Hashteher" Sukida said to Hazel, "And this is my brother Loki"

Loki seemed to notice Hazel for the first time and grinned stupidly at her. "Hey there" he said, smiling wryly at the tall dark haired girl, "You can call me anything you want my sweet thing"

Uh oh Ash thought, seeing something snap in Hazel's eyes, and stepped out of the way.

Whack! Hazel had floored Loki with one solid punch. "I am not your sweet thing you big perv!" Hazel growled at Loki then stormed back into the mansion.

"Idiot" Sukida muttered as she stepped over Loki and followed Hazel indoors.

"I'd help you man" Tauren said to Loki, staring after Sukida, "but I've a more pressing matter to deal with."

"Go play with pointy sticks Moron"

"It's Tauren"

"Whatever"

"Come on" Ash helped Loki up, "Let's find something to heal that eye. Are you okay?"

"I think I'm in love" Loki answered dopily, clearly thinking of Hazel.

Ash shook his head as he brought Loki inside the mansion to the kitchen to put something on his black eye. Mixed breed dragons or normal people: whatever Sukida and Loki Hashteher were they had certainly made an impact on the people they met even before stepping inside Daybreak Headquarters.


	31. Black Catkin Part 31

Part 31

Thierry Descourdes looked through the files on his desk and shook his head. He couldn't believe that now the promise he had made that stranger on that unusually cold night in late winter ten years ago had finally come full circle. More importantly, how would she react? Being left on the doorstep of some nameless stranger's house by your own father, without a word of introduction or a goodbye except the words "Lock her memories, don't let her remember until she really needs to, and make sure she's safe", wasn't something anyone would want to be reminded of. However, the matter now was more important than never letting on at all.

"Come in Arizan"

The door opened slowly and a small hand appeared. Followed by the face of a young worried looking teenage girl. Followed by a shoulder; a foot; a leg. Patience was something that not many people were blessed with and Theirry was one of the rare few who had it. "Arizan, it's okay" he said calmly, "I'm not going to get angry with you."

"But I left such a mess before I left for the mission," Arizan said hastily, rushing into the room and waving her arms about with emphasis, "Shouldn't that be punished or something??"

"Miss Taylor," Thierry frowned at the overexcited girl, "I do not punish. You know that. However I will be expecting you to be more careful next time you're up to your antics. Is that understand?" Arizan nodded feebly. "Anyway," Thierry went on, "That isn't why I sent for you."

"It's not?"

"Tell me, Arizan, how far back do you remember?"

The Circle Daybreak Lord watched as the young mixed breed dragoness squinted and pouted and made several odd faces as she tried to remember her past. When he had wiped her memory all those years, he hadn't even begun to imagine that she could be linked to the most dangerous species in the Night World, let alone be anything like it. If she was beginning to remember everything from her past, who knew what dangers they could be in. "I can't..." Arizan hesitated then shook her head mournfully, "I can't remember anything. Except." She paused and started looking one of Thierry's antique paintings instead of the vampire lord himself. "Except a fire" she eventually sighed and went on, "And a lady. I think she was someone I was very close to, but I don't know how."

"I see" Thierry said calmly as he got up from behind his desk, "Arizan if you would hold still for a moment please. I'm going to unlock your past."

"My what??"

"Your past, Arizan" the made vampire said as he stood in front of her and began to raise his hand to touch her forehead, "I promised your father"

"My father??" the mixed breed was looking slightly worried and annoyed now.

"Your real father" Thierry answered, "I don't like this as much as you do Miss Taylor, but it has to be done."

"No! Wait!" Arizan spoke in a panicked voice, "Don't make me go back there! I don't want to re..."

Before she could finish Thierry had touched her forehead and began the process of unlocking all the painful memories he'd shut away in her mind. He felt extreme guilt as he watched the young dragoness's face go from fear to anger to hate to fury to eventual quiet rage: tears running down her face. A side door opened and Arizan swung her head around to see who was coming into the room. Thierry already knew. This was either going to be a good reunion, or a bad one.

"Has it been done?"

"Her memories have been unlocked"

"Oh thank goodness"

"You"

"Hello Little One..."

"Don't! Just don't"

"Arizan, please understand? I had to..."

"Leave me alone" Arizan said with quiet rage, and stormed out of Thierry's office slamming the door behind her. Both men looked at each other and frowned.

"She'll come round" Arizan's father spoke up, "I know she will. The fate of the good dragons depends on it"

"I hope you're right, Darius" Thierry answered him quietly, calling Arizan's father by his name, "I sincerely hope you're right, because if this goes wrong, I'm having you banned from my property and cutting any contact you have with Arizan and locking her memories away again including her knowledge of what she really is. Do you understand?"

"Yes Lord Thierry" Darius said calmly, "I understand."

**********

Fascinating, absolutely fascinating. In all her life travelling with The Lost Shifters, Suki had never seen anywhere more stunning and regal looking than Lord Thierry's mansion. Well, except maybe Buckingham Palace, but she'd never been there so she couldn't compare the two. Even the ceiling was a work of art. All that colour; that detail; that craftmanship; that...

"Oof!"

Sukida felt herself and another body fall clumsily onto the floor. Well, clumsily on her part at least. Whoever she had walked in to had fallen so gracefully, it was almost as if he purposely pulled her to the floor with him. Him? She lifted her head and stared into deep sea green eyes. Eyes that she only now realised had dark navy blue around the irises. Eyes that looked annoyed then fascinated then something else. Something that made her heart and his beat fast and hard in an amost musical rhythm. "Um, I'm really sorry" Suki mumbled shyly, trying to untangle herself from him, "I wasn't looking where I was going. Did I hurt you in any way?"

"Hurt me?" the vampire chuckled deeply, his white blonde hair falling over his left eye, "Unless you're a highly powerful witch who can turn marble floors into wood, I seriously doubt that could happen." Sukida felt a bubble of annoyance rise up inside her. "The only way I'm hurt" the vampire went on, his voice sending tingles all over the young dragoness's body, "is that I couldn't be fully dressed for such a chance meeting with an unusual, exotic, and beautiful creature like yourself."

"I am not a creature" Sukida answered, her embarassment making her overlook the fact that he'd just called her beautiful, "I'm a pers..." She trailed off her sentence, realising what he had just said to her. Taking the chance, she took a proper look at him. * Oh my goddess! * she thought, her face going a nice shade of pink, * he's practically naked! *

Well, not quite, but he might as well have been as far as the younger mixed breed was concerned. The only clothing that he seemed to be wearing was a pair of well fitting dark grey jeans that looked like someone had sprayed them on. Everything else was just pale translucent lithe-muscled perfection. Perfection that had his right hand firmly on the small of her back and his left hand holding her shoulder firmly. Had he tried to protect her as they fell? She felt her heart beat faster. Whether it was from the fact that he seemed to feel the instinct to keep her safe, or that it was because she was young and still in that very shy stage girls go through with good looking older guys who looked like they'd just jumped out of the best dream in the world ever, she couldn't tell.

All Sukida could tell right then was she being drawn to his lips by an unseen force that she couldn't control. It wasn't ladylike to kiss a guy you'd only just met earlier that day, but part of her felt that she was meant to kiss him, and him only. It was the part of her arcobaleno side that could see who was meant to be with who before they even knew it themselves. Her mouth moved closer to his: their eyes beginning to close in anticipation. Closer and closer and closer and...

"Ha! I knew you'd try and make the moves on my sister!"

Sukida bit her lip and frowned as Tauren sighed deeply, making even that in itself alluring to her, and helped her up. "So, couldn't wait until I was out of sight before you did the deed with my sister, huh?!" Loki was ranting as they both turned to face him, "Sukida's only a kid. She's too young to be tied down with the likes of you, Moron." Suki felt Tauren tense up beside her and strongly wanted to drop something on her idiot brother's head.

"My name's Tauren"

"Tauren, Lauren, Schmauren, who cares"

"I'll deal with this" Sukida said, doing her very best to keep steady as she looked into Tauren's beautiful eyes before turning to glare angrily at her younger brother, "Loki Kelan Sunil Hashteher you are so dead."

"Uh oh"

"They're going to have to bring you back to life five times over by the time I've finished dealing with you."

"Aaaaaaah! Crazed sister on the loose!" Loki yelled as Sukida ran around the huge entrance hall hitting him with her shoe, "Help meeeeeeee! Murder by ballet pump! MURDER BY BALLET PUMP!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!... Oh, um, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there." The tall girl frowned at Loki and then looked past him at Sukida. Both Hashteher siblings immediately stood to attention: Sukida still holding her shoe in her hand.

"I presume this idiot is related to you?" the girl asked, her grey eyes stern and calculating.

"Unfortunately the answer to that is yes" Sukida sighed, dropping her shoe and shoving her foot back in it, "I had the terrible misfortune to be born with him." A small smirk played across the tall girl's face.

"So, you're not how I imagined at all" she said quietly, calmly assessing both sister and brother, "I feared that a certain side of you both would put people here in danger. If people are put in danger and I don't do a thing about it, I lose my job. You understand?"

"Yes" Sukida nodded, "I understand."

"Anyway," the girl went on, "I should introduce myself. My name's Keller. First name's Raksha, but no one but my soulmate is allowed to call me it. And you are?"

"Sukida Hashteher" Sukida answered her with a warm smile, "Suki for short. The idiot standing in front of you is Loki. He got named that because he pinched our younger sister's blanket the day after we were all born. Personally I think he should've been called Div since I think he got dropped on his head a few times when he was borm, but oh well, what can you do"

"Hey!"

"Pleased to meet both of you" Keller said, doing her very best not to laugh, "Anyway, I'm not too good at this, but we were wondering. I mean my soulmate Galen and I. Well actually just Galen, but I'm interested now too. We were wondering if you could tell us more about your arcobaleno drago ancestors. Galen would like to put the information in the shifter records."

"Sure" Sukida smiled up at the tall raven haired girl, "That's no problem at all. We'd love to he..."

"Has anyone see Arizan?" everyone turned to look at the small half werewolf, "She seems to have vanished into thin air and I can't seem to track her. Keller, do you know where she went?"

"Lupe, you're a good friend" Keller answered the half 'wolf with a calm smile on her face, "Really, you are. But seriously, do I look like I have 'Goes around chasing after adolescent and moody important figures of Daybreak' tattooed on my forehead?"

"Loki and I could help" Sukida spoke up before any arguement could take place, "Tracking and sensing people is in our genes."

"Ah, but are you good at it as I am?" Suki twirled around and frowned at Tauren, "You're only... What? Twelve?"

"I'm four-teen"

"Yeah, fourteen" Tauren waved off Sukida's annoyed remark like a bug that was bothering him, "Basically you're just a kid. I've got years of experience ahead of you."

"I'm not a..." Someone cleared their throat behind them and Sukida turned around to see a frowning Keller and Lupe tapping her foot impatiently. "Okay," she sighed, "Let's split up into search parties. I'll go with Keller and Lupe, and Loki will go with..."

"I am NOT going with him" Loki spoke up, his voice all aghast, "He might suck my blood dry!"

"Well, if you want, I can arran..." Tauren responded with a wink at Sukida and a wry smile that gave her sudden urge to throw herself in his arms.

"Go with Tauren" Suki spoke tersley as she clutched the front of her brother's t-shirt angrily, ignoring the feelings of need she was beginning to have for the young vampire annoying them both, "Or I'll tell our new friend Hazel that you sleep with a doll."

"It's called an action..." Loki's face went white as Sukida stared daggers at him, "Alright, Alright, I'm going. Don't hex me, okay!"

**********

~ Back in the past: The Old Kingdom ~

It was so unreal like something out of a dream, yet Hadrian somehow knew that if he and Pandie hadn't been dragged back through time and across worlds there would be no hope for their own. Watching silently as each Sister Dragon passed a small pendant from one to the other, all speaking in a laungage he'd never heard before, the young Daybreak agent wondered if he would ever see her again after the whole mission was over. If he had to he would travel over miles and miles of road, even land and sea, just spend one precious hour holding her and having her by his side. He knew it was silly feeling this way for someone who he'd only known for almost two days, but the soulmate principle was a devious little trickster like that: you could fall for your soulmate gradually or could happen in an instant like getting hit in the head by an incoming frisbee.

"Hadrian Taylor" Hadrian jumped out of his small trance and looked to see the smallest Sister Dragon speaking to him, her water drop shaped pupils un-nerving him slightly, "You are the soulmate of the summoned one, are you not?"

"Y-yes" he answered her nervously, feeling like he'd been sent to see his kinderkarten Headmistress, "I am. Look, I'm only here because..."

"You followed the summoned one through the portal to save and protect her?" the oldest sister dragon finished for him, "This is no chance encounter, Young Master Taylor. This ritual will weaken Miss Katteken. She'll need you to keep her steady. Do you both understand?" The young soulmates glanced at each other then nodded solemnly at the Sister Dragons.

"Very well" Zaykaia said calmly, taking off the pendant around her neck, "If you would be so kind as to hold each other's arms like this." She gently put their arms in a criss cross formation and made them hold each other by the wrists: the tingling feeling from Pandie making Hadrian wanting to hold her closer than just that. "Now," the purple haired Sister Dragon was saying as she wrapped the pendant around were their wrists met, "this is the dream stone of the Moon. When you wear it and close your eyes it will help you see things that are yet to happen, but when the summoned one wears it she shall see the fate of the world and who will save it." Resigning himself to the task, Hadrian took a deep breath and closed his eyes just as Pandie closed hers.

The images flashed around him like the opening credits for a television series and movie trailer all in one. People he knew and people who he'd never met walked around, past, and even through him as he watched each vision with his soulmate. Some visions were happy; some were sad; some gave him a pleasant feeling; and some... A vision of his friends dying at the hands of the Dark One flashed in front of him. "That vision may or may not happen" a velvety voice answered his unasked question, which of the Sister Dragons it belonged to he couldn't tell, "Only you can decide if you let it happen and what you will do if it does." After that the visions flew by so fast he wondered how Pandie herself was even able to register them.

"I see a young dragon removed from her family" she spoke with ease as each vision appeared, "I see myself the daughter of a cat and a lady of magic; a crippled girl in a land of green; a young lady who can control the forces of air; a fire girl who is like one of your own; and a child from the sea. They are all circling a beacon of blue fire with violet light and the power of the elements with the light on one side and the darkness on the other"

"I see" Zaykaia's voice said thoughtfully, "Master Taylor, you may let go off the link now."

"Yes, Miss Luna" he answered her, being as polite as possible as he pulled himself from the visions and opened his eyes to the surroundings of the Six Sister Dragons chamber, "Is there any chance we can go back to our own time again the same way we got here?"

"I don't see why not" Kalita Sola mused, "However it was Mage Orenda who brought you here and only she can send you back. Even then she has to make a connection with one of her future selves and we can't guarantee if that will send you back to the right moment in time or world for you."

"If we have to wait to get to the right time and world," Hadrian began to say, not noticing Pandie's eyes go wide with fear, "then we will w..." The scream stopped his words in an instant. Quickly removing the pendant from around both their arms, Hadrian gently coaxed Pandie out from the visions. "Pandora?" he said gently, calling her by her full given name, "Are you alright?"

"The visions, Hadrian, the visions"

"Yes, I saw them too"

"No! I mean the ones after"

"After?"

"My mother; Arizan; You; Everyone dead"

"Pandie, they may not happen" Hadrian began to say, "The Sister Dragons said so. Everyone will be all..."

"You don't understand" Pandie shook her head tearfully, and Hadrian feeling ashamed understood what she meant, "It's all going to end. After Arizan goes we all go."

"It's the Dark One, right?" Pandie nodded sadly as Hadrian spoke on quietly, "He's got, I mean, he's going to find Arizan and..."

"...Kill her" the young witch cat finished for him, her words boring through and leaving a mark on his soul, "Arizan is in danger, Hadrian. We have to go back. We have to go back now."


	32. Black Catkin Part 32

Part 32

"I smell her! She's around here somewhere!"

"Are you sure you're not smelling yourself? When's the last time you went anywhere near water?"

"More than you've looked at a girl and not perved all over her"

"Look whose talking, Sir Black Eyed Freak"

"Yeah yeah, whatever Moron"

"My name's Tauren"

"Yep, sure, I think smell Rizzo in here..." Hazel had no time to think as the door was flung open and a pair of odd eyes gaped at her standing there in mid silly dance wearing just her vest and shorts. "Well, hey there, have you..." THWACK! Hazel totally floored the new guy.

"What is wrong with you?!" she snapped at him as she hastily put on a pair of sweatpants and yanked him off the floor: ignoring the little shock she kept getting when she touched his skin, "Do you have a deathwish or something?"

"Weeeee! I see fairies and angels and puppies and floatie hearts! Yaaaaaaay!"

"Huh?"

"Ignore him" Tauren answered her as he stepped over Loki gibbering on the floor playing with an imaginary daisy, "He's just being an idiot"

"She loves me, she loves me not, she loves..."

"Aren't all boys idiots?" Hazel muttered, trying to ignore the feeling of annoyance she felt when Tauren called the new guy an idiot, "What's with the whole barging into my room uninvited anyway? Are you men allegeric to the word Privacy?"

"Rizzo's missing"

"And further more..." Hazel stopped and stared wide eyed at Tauren, "Rizzo's what?!"

"Vanished, disappeared, vamoosed"

"I understood you the first time" the young half tiger shifter spoke tersely, then shook her head disbelievingly, "Arizan can't be missing. She was only in here ten minutes ago making her bed while I was in the bathroom. The last I heard from her she was saying she was going to raid the fridge. I swear the amount of time she spends in that kitchen she must have a bottomless pit in that stomach of hers."

"I think she may not have been heading for the kitchen this time"

"What?" Tauren pointed to the knotted sheets reaching from Arizan's bed post to the window and halfway down the mansion wall and Hazel's face went as white as the stripe through her dark hair. "Oh sh...oes!" Uncle Thierry is going to ground me for another week now"

"Yeah, because flooring a guest for the second time in a row isn't a groundable offence" Hazel glared at him and went to pick up the new guy off the floor. "What are you doing?"

"Taking this stupid head for fresh air" came the answer to Tauren's question, "Lot's of fresh air"

"You do realize you're going to get in trouble for this"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Are you going to help me or not?"

The young vampire frowned and helped Hazel support the big lump between them, "I'm only doing this for you because you're my friend"

"And because you fancy his sister"

"Shut up or I'll tell the world you talk about Care Bears in your sleep"

"I thought was you who did that?"

"Are we going or just standing here discussing stupidness?"

"Okay, here's the deal: Anyone who we bump into asks us where we're going with..."

"Loki"

"Yeah, Loki" Hazel found her insides flutter at the name, "Anyone who asks us where we're going with Loki we tell them he fainted and we're taking him for fresh air. Got it?"

"Got it"

"Good. Let's go"


	33. Black Catkin Part 33

Part 32

The air was crisp and cool around Moonsands Veterinary Hospital and several lone stars danced small light over its tiny little roof. It wasn't the biggest animal hospital in the world, in fact all it consisted of was a little cabin and an even smaller shed, but what they lacked in size they made up for in the amount of lives they saved each day. Inside the cabin the young voluntary nurse was cleaning up and getting things ready for the night duty volunteer: the sounds of yipping and barking filling the air.

"Alright! Alright ready!" the nurse called out, raising her voice to be heard over the din, "Keep your fur on"

Walking out to the shed the nurse chuckled to herself as the yipping barking noise got louder and louder until she opened the shed door and two little bundles of fur tumbled out and started dancing around her feet. "Olly and Tino, I should've known it was you two" she laughed as she picked up a giddy wriggling licky Jack Russell puppy and stroked the bouncing Husky pup's soft fur, "How did you guys get out of your rooms?" The husky yipped and seemed to smile cheekily as it wagged its tail "Ah, is that so Tino" the nurse laughed, pulling her ID out of reach of the Jack Russell puppy who had the name badge in its teeth and was tugging at it with tiny determination, "Sorry Olly, you can't be Nurse Eva Perrodeaguas today. This is the ouchy badge" Olly barked and gave a laughing Eva a big friendly slobbery lick up the side of her cheek.

Suddenly a loud thundering boom sounded in the sky followed by a small screech and a loud blood freezing roar, making both Olly and Tino both shake with fear and Eva almost jump out of her skin. Settling the young pups downs and making sure they were safe as she gently put them back in their beds in their dog rooms and locking the animal house behind her the young nurse set out to investigate the cause of the unexpected noise. For some strange reason she could hear the faint sound of coughing and human voices coming from not too far in between the trees.

"Pandie? Hey Pandie? We got through"

"Oww, my arm hurts"

"Oh my Goddess, are you okay?"

"It's just a bruise"

"If that's a bruise then I'm the President"

"Pandie Katteken??"

Both teenagers turned and stared at her wide-eyed: the boy putting himself in front of the girl as if to protect from some impending danger. "Hadrian, it's okay" Pandie whispered in the boy's ear, "She's a friend of my family" The boy nodded and stepped aside as Pandie walked up to Eva: her right arm looking dangerously bent the wrong way. "I'm so glad you're here Eva" she said, wincing as she held her arm close by her side, "They said we might not be able to get back to the right world or point in time and we just had to or we would be too and she'd die and..."

"Woah! Hey kid, slow down" Eva spoke quickly, stopping Pandie in her tirade, "I may not be old enough to be your mum or barely an adult myself but that doesn't mean I can understand when you talk at ninety miles an hour. Start from the beginning, tell me what is going, and why sister isn't with you." Pandie told her as best she could what happend over the past day or so from meeting the Daybreakers to the prophecies to the dimension time portal to the Six Sisters to arriving back in their own time and world. By the time she had almost finished telling the story, Pandie had crumpled to the ground: exhausted.

"And if we don't get there soon he's going to kill her and everything will be lost" she was finishing off in an almost faint voice, "As for Casey: she's resting at Cornelia's. The fight at the graveyard gave her a few bruises needing to be healed." Eva frowned a little at the thought of her little sister being so irresponsible yet again, but shrugged it off. This was not the time to be cross with anyone.

"I'll do my best to ease that broken arm for but you'll have to see a proper doctor to get it fully healed" the young volunteer nurse said, helping Hadrian to lift Pandie gently up off the ground, "After that we'll all get in my car and drive back to..."

"Screech!"

Eva turned at the sound of the bird's call expecting to see a grey hawk flying overhead: she knew that call of the bird anywhere. Instead she found herself staring at a young girl around Pandie and Casey's age with the most unusual hair in three shades of blue and strange rainbow flecked eyes. Before she could call out to her, the girl's eyes seemed to widen in fear and she disappeared into the trees. What the huh?

"Come on you two" she said quietly, turning back toward the hospital "Let's get you somewhere safe" As soon as she said this Eva felt a strange chill in the air and looking up saw a tall man with black and white hair and completely black eyes smiling sinisterly at her. For several moments Eva was frozen to the spot and then when she could move again the man did a mock salute and turned into smoke flying up into the air: twisting and growing into the most fearsome beast to ever possibly live.

"Car! Now!"

The two teenagers didn't stop to ask what was going on and nodding quickly in agreement ran with Eva towards her car: Hadrian holding Pandie's hand like someone was going to suddenly take her away from him. As they pulled out of the car park and raced down the driveway, tires spinning up bits of mud from the road, Eva looked briefly in the driver's mirror and said "That was him, wasn't it? The man who's going to bring on the end" Pandie looked at Hadrian and then looked at Eva and nodded.

"He's the one who's going to destroy the world"


	34. Black Catkin Part 34

**The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin**

**Part 34**

"She'll come back to you"

Calder paused testing the restraints on the eagle and looked bewildered for who in Blaine Moreno's cave dungeons could be daring to talk to him. "No talking from prisoners of The Dark Dragon King" he snapped bluntly as another dark soldier assassin walked past the entrance to the prison, his true thoughts hidden by a mask of iced cruelty.

As soon as the other soldier left the cream haired lamia turned and looked towards the grey eyed witch staring calmly at him. Her dark honeyed locks were fading to a dull silver around her face and was cut short and harsh making her look almost unrecognizable to most who'd seen her face, but he already knew who she was and why she was there. "You should keep quiet, Ms Harman" he spoke softly, looking back to what he was doing and continuing to work on the eagle's restraints, "If my boss finds out that I didn't kill you or your daughters it'll be the end for everyone."

The witch nodded in simple understanding and began drawing in the dust with her finger. Calder glanced over to see her drawing the shape of a dog before brushing it away and drawing a woman's face surrounded by long wild wavy hair: It didn't have to be the best artwork in the world to tell Calder who it was meant to be. "Your soulmate" were the words the lovesick vampire heard "She's returning to you"

Ever since escaping the incident in Little Brook Cemetery strangely unharmed Ethne had started feeling something wasn't quite right with what her current purpose was meant to be. To make things even more confusing she found herself understanding the witch cat shifter girl as well as the Dragon Child herself, and dreams of things that happened in her past life when she wasn't there to remember them started haunting her sleep at night. However that didn't mean she was going to join them and it didn't mean she was going to forget that things weren't going to be the same in her current loyalties to the Dark One.

Throwing a small flame at the torch bracketed on the cave wall, the young fire mage assassin stared at the girl who was supposed to be Mr. Moreno's one true enemy who he would destroy once and before she would shine again while the guardians gathered and destroy him forever: Whoever had written those ancient legends had some pretty stupid ideas to say the least. "Hey Blondie!" Ethne snapped, getting the Dragon Child's attention, "Why don't you just join our side? We could save ourselves a whole lot of bother and you could keep your life spared at the same time."

"Hmmm, let me think" Arizan pondered, "Get killed to save my friends and the world gets destroyed? Or defect to the Night World side and my friends get killed and still the world gets destroyed? I vote neither please Bob"

"You're making a very big mistake"

"Am I?"

Ethne didn't like how, at that very moment when she had spoken, Arizan's eyes almost seemed to bore into her skull straight into her mind and it felt like all the wisdom of the ancients was holding her to that very question. "I can't do this" she muttered partly to herself, "Not again." "You've obviously made your decision to die" she continued out loud, brusquely leaving the cave cell without bothering to look behind her, "Do with that what you will, My Lady Dragoness"

"And so, it begins"

The wind suddenly dropped around them and Hazel felt a cold uneasiness crawl through her veins and along her skin as Tauren drove the convertible almost too silently along the road. Behind her the young male dragon shifter was twitching and turning: a worried frown threatened to mark his handsome face. No, she shook her head, Loki wasn't that way to her. Love was for silly people and grownups who were bitterly lonely. She was not...

A vast wall of shadowed darkness suddenly flew towards the car, as if appearing from nowhere, and something pulled Hazel down. "Stay down!" Loki's voice was whispering, "You too Moron! And whatever you do, don't stop me!" Before anyone could complain about anything, Loki was leaping out of the car and walking towards the darkness, seemingly pushing it back and repeating the same words over and over again.

"The time is not now for this end

Because the life has only just begun

And light will forever banish the darkness away

As the Moon is always the sister to the Sun"

Just when Hazel thought he was going to speak the words endlessly until the darkness took him, Loki shouted the last line and a bright flash of light knocked her flat and without explanation showed her visions of three others speaking the same words with the same determination.

The first vision showed her Sukida staring down the darkness with dragon wings unfurling and fire in her eyes as if someone had dared her to face her ultimate enemy. Behind her, several members of Circle Daybreak looked ready to fight what was out there if she so much as failed. Hands gripped staffs and daggers tightly and feet dug forcefully into the ground without thought as Sukida softly growled the words in her half form, "The time is not now for this end"

Flash! Now she was watching a young man in a hooded cloak standing in circle in a stone court yard and holding a tall carved mahogany staff with strange markings on it. All around him other young men and woman in hooded cloaks sat nervously in the circle murmuring incantations as the darkness froze still around them. The young man in the middle, who Hazel figured was the older brother, tapped the ground several times before stoically speaking, "Because the life has only just begun"

Another flash and now she was watching Arizan standing with her hands tied behind her back and her eyes to the ground as the life force slowly drained from her, ignoring it and her cold souled executioner as she spoke the words her siblings strongly echoed. "And light will forever banish the darkness away" the young dragoness smiled dangerously at her oncoming fate, and Hazel felt her heart unexplainably sink as Loki's voice repeated each word in her head, "As the Moon is always sister to the Sun"

Images of stone statues danced through her mind, throwing out light to block the darkness despite themselves forever frozen in time, and the feeling of loss began to grow and grow in the young witch shifter's soul. Even as she watched both Loki face danger with no care for his own life at all and Arizan wink bravely as her enemy stabbed her one last time in the heart, Hazel knew that she couldn't stop the loud rushing sound going through her ears and her voice from desperately screaming.

"LOKI! NOOOO!"

Zaykaia waited patiently, knowing that her four young guests would soon be arriving. If things went according to plan and both the Moon Dragon Guardian and the Dragon Child worked out by themselves what their roles really meant in this temporary battle, then the visit would not be a long one. As if she had called them one by one, the young Hashteher siblings began to appear.

First was the eldest, Syrius, dressed in his trainee mage cloak and looking very solemn. "My Lady Dragoness" he bowed low as he addressed Zaykaia, "I have fulfilled my part" The Moon Dragoness smiled and nodded calmly. Despite his young age the eldest of the four Hashteher Quads would always have both the formality and maturity of someone twice his own age. It was no wonder his parents had almost mistaken him for being an Old Soul.

Next was Sukida, who came striding through like a tall dominant giant despite her short frame. "Did you know that most shapeshifters and their associates have never actually heard of The Arcobaleno?" she spoke without stopping to take a breath, "Not surprising how most of the historians on the other side wrote dragons like us out of the history scrolls, but guess what? They know about us now" It wasn't the best way to learn that something had been kept out of your common history, but Zaykaia knew that Sukida would be trusted enough to be able to teach them about the parts that had been left out.

Not long after his sister had appeared Loki walked into view, his face full of worry and concern. "You saw her cry, didn't you?" he asked Zaykaia without actually asking her, "Just before I got here she cried, and I can still sense her crying now" He looked back as if watching someone behind him and then turned to look at Zaykaia again. "We did the right thing, didn't we?" It was like a little child asking for approval, "I'll be able to go back to her, won't I?" A serene smile and nod was the answer given to him.

Last but certainly not least Arizan came crashing through, as if having been pushed from the highest cloud in a daydream and looking no more less displeased than she already was right at that very second. "I am never going through that again" she exclaimed, dusting herself off, "I know that I'm not really dead and that they only think they killed me, but next time when I go to sleep, can it be a bit more less painful?"


End file.
